Direct Current Heating Induced Giant Step Bunching and Wandering on Si(111) and (001) Vicinal Surfaces

Abstract

Direct current (DC) heating induced giant step bunching and wandering on Si(111) and (001) vicinal surfaces were newly found. The step bunching and wandering are so large that they can easily be studied by optical microscopy. Temperature dependence of the DC heating effects and the dependence of such effects on the crystallographic direction of the current were studied.