Controlling the morphology transition between step-flow growth and step-bunching growth

Abstract

Homoepitaxy on vicinal surfaces may proceed by either step-flow or step-bunching growth. This surface morphology transition is correlated with the inverse Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier and the terrace width on the vicinal surface. We discuss a growth model based on the surface diffusion theory of Burton, Cabrera, Frank, and Schwoebel to account for conditions inducing the morphology transition. Based on a Monte-Carlo method, the transition conditions of the diffusion model are investigated regarding the inverse Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier, the diffusion length, the vicinal terrace width, and the adatom mean resident time. This provides insights into crucial parameters and allows to predict the growth morphology by correlating theory and growth parameters. The theoretical results are applied to control the homoepitaxial growth of AlN.