Abstract
A number of recent experiments have shown that surfactants can modify the growth mode of an epitaxial film, suppressing islanding and promoting layer-by-layer growth. Here I introduce a set of coupled equations to describe the nonequilibrium roughening of an interface covered with a thin surfactant layer. The surfactant may drive the system into a novel phase, in which the surface roughness is negative, corresponding to a flat surface.
- Received 15 March 1993
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.4102
©1993 American Physical Society