New cellular automaton designed to simulate epitaxial films growth

In this paper, a simple (2+1) solid-on-solid model of the epitaxial films growth based on random deposition followed by breaking particle–particle lateral bonds and particles surface diffusion is introduced. The influence of the critical number of the particle–particle lateral bonds z and the deposition rate on the surface roughness dynamics and possible surface morphology anisotropy is presented. The roughness exponent α and the growth exponent β are (0.863,0.357), (0.215,0.123), (0.101,0.0405) and (0.0718,0.0228) for z=1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Snapshots from simulations of the growth process are included.