Mound morphology of the 2+1 -dimensional Wolf–Villain model caused by the step-edge diffusion effect

The mound morphology of the 2+1-dimensional Wolf–Villain model is studied by numerical simulation. The diffusion rule of this model has an intrinsic mechanism, i.e., the step-edge diffusion, to create a local uphill particle current, which leads to the formation of the mound. In the simulation, a noise reduction technique is employed to enhance the local uphill particle current. Our results for the dynamic exponent 1/z and the roughness exponent α obtained from the surface width show a dependence on the strength of the step-edge diffusion. On the other hand, λ(t), which describes the separation of the mounds, grows as a function of time in a power-law form in the regime where the coalescence of mounds occurs, λ(t)∼tn, with n≈0.23–0.25 for a wide range of the deposition conditions under the step-edge diffusion effect. For m=1, a noise reduction factor of unity, the behavior of λ(t) in the saturated regime is also simulated. We find that the evolution behavior of λ(t) in the whole process can be described by the standard Family–Vicsek scaling.