Pre-roughening of close-packed fcc(111) surfaces, found in rare gas solids, was an interesting but poorly characterized phase transition. A restricted solid-on-solid model which described it was introduced. Using mainly Monte Carlo methods both statics (including critical behavior and scattering properties) and dynamics (including surface diffusion and growth) were studied. In antiphase scattering, it was shown that pre-roughening will generally showed up at most as a dip. Surface growth was predicted to be continuous at pre-roughening, where surface self-diffusion should also drop. The physical mechanism leading to pre-roughening on rare gas surfaces was analyzed and identified in the step-step elastic repulsion.

Preroughening, Diffusion, and Growth of a FCC(111) Surface. S.Prestipino, G.Santoro, E.Tosatti: Physical Review Letters, 1995, 75[24], 4468-71