Current-Induced Faceting of Crystal Surfaces

Abstract

A crystal surface can be destabilized by an external field which induces the directed migration of adatoms. We specify the conditions of instability in terms of the orientation dependence of the adatom mobility and determine the resulting faceted state as the stationary solution of a nonlinear evolution equation for the surface profile. Coarsening of the facet structure is studied using an atomistic solid-on-solid model, and the analogy to spinodal decomposition is emphasized.