The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) surface roughening model was proposed nearly fifteen years ago. Although there have been many theoretical studies, there are very few experimental examples of thin film evolution obeying the KPZ equation. We discuss the physical basis of the KPZ equation and suggest possible reasons for the departure from KPZ behavior that is usually observed in surface growth/etching processes. Particularly, we construct a non-local, KPZ-like growth model that takes into account the effect of surface re-emission and show that, for certain limits, our model reduces to the KPZ model. We also discuss various experimental results in the context of known roughening models, including our model.
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