Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 44: Growth and Fracture

DY 44.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 16:00–16:15, TU H3010

Scaling properties of step bunches — •Joachim Krug — Institut für theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln

Step bunching is a ubiquitous instability of vicinal crystal surfaces, which can be induced by a variety of mechanisms such as growth, sublimation or surface electromigration. Recently it has been found theoretically and experimentally that step bunches display characteristic scaling laws, which relate e.g. the height of a bunch to its width. A description of the surface shape evolution in terms of a continuum height equation suggests that step bunching instabilities fall into a few universality classes sharing the same scaling exponents. In this talk the basis of the universality scenario will be illustrated for a particular class of models, and the importance of understanding the properties of moving bunches will be emphasized. The talk is based on joint work with M. Kotrla, A. Pimpinelli, V. Popkov, F. Slanina, S. Stoyanov and V. Tonchev.