Pattern-forming instabilities in homoepitaxial crystal growth

The theory of morphological instabilities caused by reduced interlayer transport in homoepitaxial crystal growth is briefly reviewed. The discussion is based on a large scale phenomenological equation of motion for the growing surface, which is motivated by the notion of growth-induced mass currents. Many (though not all) aspects of the coarsening mound morphology can be understood by analogy with phase ordering kinetics. For step flow growth on vicinal surfaces effectively one-dimensional growth equations can be derived from microscopic step dynamics.