  We study the dynamics of adatoms in a model of vicinal (11m) fcc metal
surfaces. We examine the role of different diffusion mechanisms and their
implications to surface growth. In particular, we study the effect of steps and
kinks on adatom dynamics. We show that the existence of kinks is crucially
important for adatom motion along and across steps. Our results are in
agreement with recent experiments on Cu(100) and Cu(1,1,19) surfaces. The
results also suggest that for some metals exotic diffusion mechanisms may be
important for mass transport across the steps.
