# Relationship Between Macrostep Height and Surface Velocity for a Reaction-Limited Crystal Growth Process

## TL;DR

This study investigates how macrostep height influences surface velocity during reaction-limited crystal growth using Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice model, revealing that larger macrosteps slow growth and affect surface dynamics.

## Contribution

It introduces a Monte Carlo simulation based on a restricted solid-on-solid model to analyze macrostep effects on crystal growth velocity and surface properties.

## Key findings

- Surface velocity decreases with macrostep height.
- Simulation reproduces velocity variations observed in 4H-SiC.
- Macrostep height impacts terrace slope and step kinetics.

## Abstract

This work examined the effect of macrostep height on the growth velocity of a vicinal surface during reaction- (interface-) limited crystal growth under non-equilibrium steady state conditions. The Monte Carlo method was employed, based on a restricted solid-on-solid (RSOS) model with point-contact-type step-step attraction (termed the p-RSOS model). Although this is a simple lattice model, the model surface shows a variety of distinctive configurations depending on the temperature and the driving force for crystal growth. The results demonstrate that the surface velocity decreases as the height of the faceted macrostep increases. In addition, the significant variation in surface velocity recently reported by Onuma {\it et al.} in a study based on 4H-SiC was reproduced. This work also shows that the terrace slope, elementary step velocity and elementary step kinetic coefficient are all affected by the faceted macrostep height.