Slip trace-induced terrace erosion

Benjamin Douat (1) , Jérôme Colin (1, 2) , Roberto Bergamaschini (2) , Francesco Montalenti (2) , Michel Drouet (1) , Joël Bonneville (1) , Christophe Coupeau (1)

1 PPrime [Poitiers] - Institut Pprime [UPR 3346]
2 Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali = Department of Materials Science [Milano-Bicocca]

We have investigated the interaction between slip traces and vicinal steps on the Nb(1 1 1) surface under increasing external strain. By exploiting an extended scanning tunneling microscopy analysis, we here show that emerging dislocations at the free-surface can induce the full disappearance of atomic terraces. To shed light on the observed behavior, we have modeled the elastic interaction between a screw dislocation and a vicinal step in the actual experimental configuration. After computing the adatom chemical potential, we show that strain-mediated diffusion on surface causes step erosion, possibly leading to vanishing of full terraces.

Mots clés: Surface diffusion; Terrace evolution; STM observations; Plasticity; Dislocations

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Benjamin Douat, Jérôme Colin, Roberto Bergamaschini, Francesco Montalenti, Michel Drouet, et al.. Slip trace-induced terrace erosion. Applied Surface Science, 2019, 466, pp.454-458. ⟨10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.10.012⟩. ⟨hal-03666565⟩