Hybrid asynchronous algorithm for parallel kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of thin film growth (Q2576306)

The authors find that, except for 1D simulations in which relatively large system sizes are typically used, for the typical parameters and processor and system sizes in epitaxial growth simulations, the parallel efficiency of the ``hybrid'' algorithm is significantly limited by three main effects: -- the high probability of selecting a boundary Metropolis Monte Carlo (MMC) move which is due to the large range of rate in thin-film growth; -- the low acceptance probability of boundary MMC moves; -- the requirement of interprocessor communication before each boundary MMC move. The hybrid algorithm does not appear to offer an efficient simulation method for parallel kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of epitaxial grouth except at relatively low temperatures.