Nonlinear wavelength selection in surface faceting under electromigration

Abstract

We report on the control of the faceting of crystal surfaces by means of surface electromigration. When electromigration reinforces the faceting instability, we find perpetual coarsening with a wavelength increasing as $t^{1/2}$. For strongly stabilizing electromigration, the surface is stable. For weakly stabilizing electromigration, a cellular pattern is obtained, with a nonlinearly selected wavelength. The selection mechanism is not caused by an instability of steady-states, as suggested by previous works in the literature. Instead, the dynamics is found to exhibit coarsening {\it before} reaching a continuous family of stable non-equilibrium steady-states.