Epitaxial phenomena across length and time scales

The morphological evolution of an epitaxial film results from atomistic processes such as adatom motion and step–adatom interactions asserting their influence over the macroscopic length and time scales of the growth front. Modelling epitaxial phenomena thus necessitates making a compromise between the detailed information provided by first-principles methods and the computational flexibility afforded by methods such as Monte-Carlo simulations and continuum equations of motion, in which atomistic processes are replaced by coarse-grained effective kinetics. We will review the various approaches that are available for modelling epitaxial phenomena using the (001) surfaces of III–V compound semiconductors as a case study, with a view to making direct comparisons with experimental measurements and to establishing a methodology that is capable of incorporating all pertinent length and time scales. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.