Unexpected transient effect.
When a grooved periodic profile cut in a crystalline surface relaxes through surface diffusion, flatter parts appear at the top and bottom in the transient state which precedes complete smoothing. This has been attributed to a tendency of successive steps of identical sign to draw closer to one another. This kind of kinetic interaction is a consequence of the finite value of the interatomic distance, and is present even if no interaction between steps is taken into account. We investigate this effect in a very simplified model, namely, a one-dimensional profile with alternating pairs of up and down steps, where no annihilation of steps is allowed. The quantitative effect is partly treated analytically.
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