Monte Carlo simulations of film growth Original Research Article

The growth of thin films represents an important topic in non-equilibrium phenomena, an area in which our understanding is still immature. Simple lattice models for film growth have been proposed in which both deposition and diffusion are included in different ways. We shall describe Monte Carlo and Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of diverse lattice models for film growth, including models for molecular beam epitaxy and the Edwards–Wilkinson model, and present characteristic results for the asymptotic surface roughening behavior. The difficulties in the interpretation of the data and dynamic finite size scaling analyzes will be described, and surprises will be highlighted.