Pairs of atomic scale terraces on a single crystal metal surface could be made to merge controllably under suitable conditions to yield steps of double height and width. A study was made of the effect of various physical parameters upon the formation of defects in a kinetic model of step doubling. This highly non-equilibrium problem was treated by mapping the model onto a 1D random sequential adsorption problem, and solving it analytically. Simulations were also performed in order to check the validity of the treatment. It was found that the treatment effectively captured the dynamic evolution and final state of the surface morphology. It was shown that the number and nature of the defects formed was controlled by a single dimensionless parameter.

Defect Formation and Kinetics of Atomic Terrace Merging. A.Gopinathan, T.A.Witten: Physical Review E, 2004, 70[4], 041603 (3pp)