This book provides a critical assessment of the current status and the likely future directions of thin-film growth, an area of exceptional technological importance. Its emphasis is on descriptions of the atomic-scale mechanisms controlling the dynamics and thermodynamics of the morphological evolution of the growth front of thin films in diverse systems of fundamental and technological significance. The book covers most of the original and important conceptual developments made in the 1990s. The articles, written by leading experts, are arranged in five major categories -- the theoretical...