Pattern evolution during ion beam sputtering; reductionistic view

The development of the ripple pattern during the ion beam sputtering (IBS) is expounded via the evolution of its constituent ripples. For that purpose, we perform numerical simulation of the ripple evolution that is based on Bradley-Harper model and its non-linear extension. The ripples are found to evolve via various well-defined processes such as ripening, averaging, bifurcation and their combinations, depending on their neighboring ripples. Those information on the growth kinetics of each ripple allow the detailed description of the pattern development in real space that the instability argument and the diffraction study both made in k-space cannot provide.