Modeling of Oscillatory Driven Surface Evolution

TL;DR

This paper develops a Mullins-type continuum model to describe the isotropic evolution of solid surfaces driven by oscillatory surface diffusion, focusing on external pulsed electron or laser sources and their effects on surface relaxation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model incorporating oscillatory diffusivity due to external pulsed sources, extending previous surface evolution models.

Findings

Model effectively describes surface relaxation under oscillatory diffusion.

Extensions allow for broader application to different external source scenarios.

Provides analytical insights into surface morphology changes under pulsed irradiation.

Abstract

A continuum (Mullins-type) model is formulated for the isotropic evolution of a solid surface on which the mass transport occurs by oscillatory surface diffusion. The time-space oscillations of diffusivity are assumed to be induced by external source(s); a number of possible sources, different in their physical nature has been suggested in \cite{P-LH}. The particular driving mechanism assumed here is low-energy, pulsed electron or laser beam(s) incident on a surface. The simplified version of the model is applied to study the relaxation of a periodic surface corrugation. Several extensions of the model are proposed.