It was noted that the pre-roughening of close-packed face-centered cubic (111) surfaces which was observed in rare-gas solids was an interesting but poorly characterized phase transition. A restricted solid-on-solid model was introduced in order to describe it. Monte Carlo studies were made of the statics (including critical behavior and scattering) and dynamics (including surface diffusion and growth). In the case of antiphase scattering, it was shown that pre-roughening would generally show up as a dip at most. The surface growth was predicted to be continuous at pre-roughening, where surface self-diffusion was also expected to drop.

S.Prestipino, G.Santoro, E.Tosatti: Physical Review Letters, 1995, 75[24], 4468-71