Role of Surface Molecular Reactions in Influencing the Growth Mechanism and the Nature of Nonequilibrium Surfaces: A Monte Carlo Study of Molecular-Beam Epitaxy

Abstract

The role of the surface molecular-reaction kinetics in vapor-phase crystal growth is examined via Monte Carlo simulations and shown to give rise to a growth process, referred to as a configuration-dependent, reactive-incorporation growth process, which, depending upon the growth kinetics, can be distinct from the conventional nucleation and continuous-growth mechanisms. Implications of this process for the recently observed oscillations in the reflection high-energy electron-diffraction intensities during molecular-beam epitaxy of III-V compounds are discussed.