A hybrid scheme for simulating epitaxial growth

This article continues the development of a hybrid scheme for simulating epitaxial growth that combines the Burton– Cabrera–Frank (BCF) model with kinetic Monte-Carlo (KMC) simulation. This is the first implementation of the scheme for ‘‘2+1’’ dimensional growth. Other improvements over an earlier version include the use of a more conventional KMC model and some refinement in the handling of the boundary condition between the KMC and continuum regions. The method is used to examine unstable step-flow with direct comparison to KMC simulations. The results are extremely good with respect to computational speed and reveal effects due to fluctuations to a much greater extent than the BCF model alone. This method will be especially useful in scenarios with widely separated steps and high adatom densities, as these are situations that cannot be easily simulated with KMC due to increased computational cost. The hybrid method is extremely flexible and can be coupled interchangeably to any KMC scheme. r 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.