Nonuniversal mound formation in nonequilibrium surface growth

Abstract

We demonstrate, using well-established nonequilibrium limited-mobility solid-on-solid growth models, that mound formation in the dynamical surface growth morphology does not necessarily imply the existence of a surface edge diffusion bias (the Schwoebel barrier). We find mounded morphologies in several nonequilibrium growth models which incorporate no Schwoebel barrier. Our numerical results indicate that mounded morphologies in nonequilibrium surface growth may arise from a number of distinct physical mechanisms, with the Schwoebel instability being one of them.