Persistent step-flow growth of strained films on vicinal substrates

Wei Hong, Ho Nyung Lee, Mina Yoon, Hans M. Christen, Douglas H. Lowndes, Zhigang Suo, Zhenyu Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

119 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a model of persistent step flow, emphasizing dominant kinetic processes and strain effects. Within this model, we construct a morphological phase diagram, delineating a regime of step flow from regimes of step bunching and island formation. In particular, we predict the existence of concurrent step bunching and island formation, a new growth mode that competes with step flow for phase space, and show that the deposition flux and temperature must be chosen within a window in order to achieve persistent step flow. The model rationalizes the diverse growth modes observed in pulsed laser deposition of SrRuO3 on SrTiO3.

Original languageEnglish
Article number095501
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume95
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 26 2005

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