Modeling of Oscillatory Driven Surface Evolution

A continuum (Mullins-type) model is formulated for the isotropic evolution of a solid surface on which the mass transport occurs by oscillatory surface diffusion. The time-space oscillations of diffusivity are assumed to be induced by external source(s); a number of possible sources, different in their physical nature has been suggested in [1]. The particular driving mechanism assumed here is low-energy, pulsed electron or laser beam(s) incident on a surface. The simplified version of the model is applied to study the relaxation of a periodic surface corrugation. Several extensions of the model are proposed.