Summary: VOLUME 84, NUMBER 25 P H Y S I C A L R E V I E W L E T T E R S 19 JUNE 2000
Nonclassical Smoothening of Nanoscale Surface Corrugations
Jonah Erlebacher and Michael J. Aziz
Harvard University, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Eric Chason
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Michael B. Sinclair and Jerrold A. Floro
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
(Received 6 May 1999)
We report the first experimental observation of nonclassical morphological equilibration of a corru-
gated crystalline surface. Periodic rippled structures with wavelengths of 290­550 nm were made on
Si(001) by sputter rippling and then annealed at 650 750 ±
C. In contrast to the classical exponential
decay with time, the ripple amplitude Al t followed an inverse linear decay, Al t Al 0 1 1 klt ,
agreeing with a prediction of Ozdemir and Zangwill. We measure the activation energy for surface relax-
ation to be 1.6 6 0.2 eV, consistent with the fundamental energies of creation and migration on Si(001).
PACS numbers: 68.35.Bs
Mass transport during morphological equilibration of
solid surfaces can occur through surface or bulk diffusion,
viscous flow, or evaporation/recondensation. The depen-

Source: Aziz, Michael J.- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Collections: Physics; Materials Science