Experiments in a perfect world: Computer simulations of growth

We present two examples of computer simulations which can give unique information on the growth mechanisms of nanostructures and thin films. First, the morphologies and the island size distributions in the usual epitaxial growth models are studied. This information cannot be obtained from simple analytical approaches such as mean-field calculations or scaling analysis. Second, we analyze a new model which includes monomer evaporation and we show that computer simulations can help deciding between different mean-field analysis and lead to the correct growth exponents.