Lateral motion of terrace width distributions during step-flow growth

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Abstract
We have observed two phenomena that occur during (Al,Ga)Sb lateral superlattice (LSL) growth which have implications on our understanding of adatom/step edge interactions on vicinal surfaces: shifts of the lateral distribution of terrace widths in the direction of step propagation, and lateral variations in the superlattice tilt angle that are correlated with the terrace width distribution. Both phenomena can be explained with a model of step-flow growth that includes both asymmetric adatom attachment at step edges and anisotropic adatom crossing over multiple step edges. A comparison between numerical simulations of this model and experimentally observed (Al,Ga)Sb LSL terrace width distributions leads to quantitative estimates of adatom migration characteristics. We find that at least one type of adatom, probably Ga, has a migration length equivalent to several terrace widths, and moves up and down step edges nearly isotropically. This method of determining adatom migration characteristics can be extended to any material that LSL layers can be grown above and below as terrace width markers.