The kinetics and the thermodynamics of atomic steps on the semiconductor surfaces

ABSTRACTPhD THESISTHE KINETICS AND THE THERMODYNAMICS OF ATOMIC STEPSON THE SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACESAhmet Türker TÜZEMENDEPARTMENT OF PHYSICSINSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCESUNIVERSITY OF CUKUROVASupervisor : Prof. Dr. Metin ÖZDEMİRYear : 2006, Pages: 165Jury : Prof. Dr. Metin ÖZDEMİRProf. Dr.Yüksel UFUKTEPEProf. Dr.Ramazan ESENProf. Dr. Yusuf ÜNLÜAssist. Prof. Dr. Hülya METİNThe aim of this study is to investigate the equilibration, growth or etching ofsemiconducting surfaces under their roughening temperature consisting of atomicheight steps separated by terraces as a function of time using a proper combination ofnumerical and analytical methods, the emphasis being on numerical methods. In thesolution of the problem, surface free energy effects and the cases of the presence andabsence of particle flux to the surface are considered. The subjects of interest areinvestigated from simple to complicated cases and first, problems in one dimensionand later in two dimensions are considered. The diffusion equation is solved on eachterrace, an equation of motion for each step is written down and from the numericalsolution of these equations the morphology of the surface is obtained.Key Words: Surface roughening temperature, diffusion equation, step andstep energy, surface morphology, boundary value problem.II