FACETING THROUGH THE PROPAGATION OF NUCLEATION

Experiments show that faceting of a vicinal surface can be induced by surface reconstruction, which often occurs only on sufficiently wide t erraces. We study this process using a one-dimensional terrace-step mo del that assigns a lower free energy to terraces wider than a critical width W-c. When mass is conserved locally, through surface diffusion, we find that a reconstructed terrace can nucleate the growth of anoth er such terrace nearby. The dynamics and spatial distribution of facet s arising from this model are very different from that produced by con ventional thermal nucleation.