Surface instability, ripple formation, and spontaneous transition to chains of dots by competing kinetics

This paper presents a three-dimensional model to capture the evolution of a surface under concurrent kinetics of sputtering, re-deposition and mass transport. The simulations reveal the dynamic surface instability process from a flat surface to the formation of a chain of dots. In particular, we discovered a spontaneous intermediate transition from ripples to dots during surface evolution, which plays a crucial role for the ordering of dots and their self-alignment behavior.