Non-universal mound formation in non-equilibrium surface growth

Abstract

We demonstrate, using well-established non-equilibrium limited-mobility solid-on-solid growth models, that mound formation in the dynamical surface growth morphology does not necessarily imply the existence of a surface edge diffusion bias (‘the Schwoebel barrier’). We find mounded morphologies in several non-equilibrium growth models that incorporate no Schwoebel barrier. Our numerical results indicate that mounded morphologies in non-equilibrium surface growth may arise from a number of distinct physical mechanisms, with the Schwoebel instability being one of them.