A simple model of epitaxial growth: the influence of step edge diffusion Original Research Article

By studying limiting cases of a simple cubic solid-on-solid model we demonstrate that step edge diffusion (SED) may play a crucial role in epitaxial growth. Our model exhibits the formation and coarsening of pyramids or mounds with a constant inclination angle (slope selection). A comparison of very fast and slow SED shows how the details of this process control both the shape of the emerging mounds as well as the coarsening dynamics. In the absence of SED, slope selection is suppressed and true self-affine scaling is observed.