Thermal roughening of a solid-on-solid model with elastic interaction

Abstract

We analyze the effects of a long-ranged interaction between surface defects on thermal roughening within the framework of a solid-on-solid model of a crystal surface by means of Monte Carlo simulation. Below roughening the interaction can be understood in terms of a repulsive step-step interaction, which is modeled by elastic dipoles located on sites adjacent to the steps. In order to reduce the computational effort involved in calculating interaction energy based on long-ranged potentials, we employ a multigrid scheme. As a result of the long-range character of the repulsive step interaction, the roughening temperature increases drastically compared to a system with short-range cutoff as a consequence of anticorrelations between surface defects.