PROPERTIES OF KINKS IN VICINAL FACE-CENTERED-CUBIC (111)SURFACES

We study properties of vicinal fcc(111) surfaces by means of kinetic M onte Carlo simulations where both the initial and the final local atom ic environments are used to determine the hopping probability. By stud ying the terrace size distribution as a function of annealing temperat ure and surface vicinality, we conclude that an effective attractive i nteraction between steps is present at lower temperatures and smaller terrace lengths but is less important at higher temperatures and large r terrace lengths, as a result of the local pairwise interactions betw een neighbouring atoms. Kink motion was measured from the time-depende nt correlation function G(K)(t)similar to t(1/4) after the number of k inks had reached equilibrium, which confirms that the step relaxation in this regime is one-dimensional. Furthermore, a detailed balance cal culation is performed which gives the kink formation energy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.