Atomistic methods for the simulation of evolving surfaces

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The currently available atomistic simulation tools for an evolving complex interface are described, focusing on the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) and cellular automata (CA) methods. The different versions of the two methods are considered, stressing their relative weaknesses and strengths. Data storage considerations lead to the choice of an octree data structure, of use in both KMC and CA simulations. The octree results in a substantial reduction in memory use, simultaneously benefiting from rapid addressability and fast searching properties. Examples in anisotropic etching are used to depict the use of the methods in practice and to describe the algorithms.