Kinetic growth instabilities on vicinal Si(001) surfaces

We report new types of kinetic growth instabilities during silicon homoepit axy on vicinal Si(001) surfaces with miscut angles less than or equal to 2 degrees. They occur under frequently employed growth conditions in an exten sively studied material system. The characteristic features are (i) kinetic step bunching at low growth temperatures, (ii) a macroscopic zigzag morpho logy of [110] segments at intermediate temperatures, and (iii) a smooth, no ncorrelated morphology at high growth temperatures and after annealing. A q ualitative model is discussed that relates the morphological features with the kinetics of step incorporation and diffusion in connection with a symme try-breaking miscut.