Molecular-beam epitaxial growth as a self-organized critical phenomenon

Abstract
Molecular-beam epitaxial (MBE) growth kinetics will be discussed from the viewpoint of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics by treating it as a self-organized critical phenomenon associated with the development of temporal and spatial scale invariance in the system. This scale invariance is characterized by dynamical critical exponents which determine the large scale and long time asymptotic properties of the growing self-affine fractal interface. The various atomistic growth rules associated with the universality classes determining these exponents, and their possible roles in MBE growth will be examined. The view is that MBE growth is dominated by crossover effects associated with the various dynamical growth universality classes due to the competition between the deposition rates and kinetic hopping rates. Also discussed is the Langevin type continuum stochastic differential equations which may provide a coarse-grained theoretical description of MBE growth. Experimental implications of the fractal MBE growth dynamics are pointed out.

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