Diffusion on a stepped substrate

Abstract

We present results for collective diffusion of adatoms on a stepped substrate with a submonolayer coverage. We study the combined effect of the additional binding at step edge, the Schwoebel barrier, the enhanced diffusion along step edges, and the finite coverage on diffusion as a function of step density. In particular, we examine the crossover from step--dominated diffusion at high step density to terrace-dominated behavior at low step density in a lattice-gas model using analytical Green's function techniques and Monte Carlo simulations. The influence of steps on diffusion is shown to be more pronounced than previously anticipated.