Effect of Surface Elasticity on the Interaction Between Steps

By taking into account the effect of surface elasticity, the problem of a half plane under concentrated normal or shear loads is first considered. The solutions for the displacements or alternatively named surface Green’s functions can be obtained by using the Fourier integral transform technique. Based on such solutions, the elastic interaction between two surface steps that are modeled as force dipoles is further investigated. The results show that the effect of surface elasticity on the interaction energy is significant when the distance between the two steps is in the range of several times the intrinsic length scale of the system. Further, surface elasticity seems to influence the interaction between steps with force components parallel to the surface more strongly than that when the steps exhibit force components only normal to the surface.