Morphological stability of nanostructures

Surface diffusion-induced smoothing of features below the roughening temper ature is discussed using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and a continuum de scription is developed. Rounding off the cusp in the surface free energy at low Miller index orientations permits a numerical solution of relaxation d riven by surface diffusion. For both unidirectional and bidirectional sinus oidal profiles of wavelength L, the amplitude decays linearly with time and the decay time scales as L-3. Surface morphology evolution below the rough ening temperature as described by the continuum equation and a step model a re compared.