Nonlinear evolution of step meander during growth of a vicinal surface with no desorption

Abstract

Step meandering due to a deterministic morphological instability on vicinal surfaces during growth is studied. We investigate nonlinear dynamics of a step model with asymmetric step kinetics, terrace and line diffusion, by means of a multiscale analysis. We give the detailed derivation of the highly nonlinear evolution equation on which a brief account has been given [Pierre-Louis et.al. PRL(98)]. Decomposing the model into driving and relaxational contributions, we give a profound explanation to the origin of the unusual divergent scaling of step meander ~ 1/F^{1/2} (where F is the incoming atom flux). A careful numerical analysis indicates that a cellular structure arises where plateaus form, as opposed to spike-like structures reported erroneously in Ref. [Pierre-Louis et.al. PRL(98)]. As a robust feature, the amplitude of these cells scales as t^{1/2}, regardless of the strength of the Ehrlich-Schwoebel effect, or the presence of line diffusion. A simple ansatz allows to describe analytically the asymptotic regime quantitatively. We show also how sub-dominant terms from multiscale analysis account for the loss of up-down symmetry of the cellular structure.