Roughening transition driven by a binary spreading process

We introduce a solid-on-solid growth process which evolves by random deposition of dimers, surface diffusion, and evaporation of monomers from the edges of plateaus. It is shown that the model exhibits a robust transition from a smooth to a rough phase. The roughening transition is driven by an absorbing phase transition at the bottom layer of the interface, which displays the same type of critical behavior as the pair contact process with diffusion 2A → 3A, 2A → ∅. PACS. 05.70.Ln Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics – 64.60.Ak Renormalization-group, fractal, and percolation studies of phase transitions – 64.60.Ht Dynamic critical phenomena