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Nonequilibrium Interface Dynamics:
Theory and Simulation from Atomistic to Continuum Scales


CSIC Building (#406), Seminar Room 4122.
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Fluctuations of Steps and Island Edges: Langevin Analysis Confronts Experimental and Numerical Data

Dr. Theodore L. Einstein

Department of Physics, University of Maryland


Abstract:   Langevin formalism in the continuum limit.provides a fruitful way to approach the fluctuations of isolated steps on surfaces. There are three well-characterized limiting cases, denoted EC, TD, and PD, in which atomic motion is limited by [2D] evaporation/condensation (attachment/detachment) at the step edge, diffusion across the terrace, or motion along the step edge, respectively, each with a distinctive power-law signature in the wavevector dependence of the relaxation time of a capillary mode. All three processes can be included in a single unified formalism, allowing examination of the [narrow] crossover regions between these 3 regime. The formalism has been generalized to vicinal surfaces, where there are additional limiting cases, most notably diffusion between steps, for which TD-like behavior changes to EC-like for small interstep separation; experimental ramifications are discussed. Similar Langevin analysis has been applied to the Brownian motion of single-layer clusters of adatoms or vacancies (describable as fluctuations of nearly circular steps). When the islands are subjected to electromigration, we find that there are several new qualitative differences depending on the dominant mode of atomic transport. These ideas are applied to, and so tested by, experimental examples and Monte Carlo simulations.

Work supported by NSF MRSEC at U. of Maryland, done in collaboration primarily with S.V. Khare, N.C. Bartelt, and E.D. Williams, and also with O. Pierre-Louis, S.D. Cohen, R.D. Schroll, D.B. Dougherty, and others at Maryland, with M. Giesen and H. Ibach at FZ-Juelich (via Humboldt Foundation), and with J.-J. Métois at Marseilles.

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