ZrO2 thin films were prepared on BK7 substrates by ion beam reactive sputtering, magnetron reactive sputtering and electron beam evaporation, respectively. The surface morphology was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The roughness exponent α, the lateral correlation length ζ and the interface width w were obtained by numerical correlation calculation, in which the value of roughness exponent of the films was measured to be 0.61, 0.81 and 0.9, respectively. The mechanism of film growth is different under different conditions. In the case of ion beam reactive sputtering and magnetron reactive sputtering, the interfaces of films are determined by stochastic deposition, desorption and diffusion effect of atom or atomic clusters on the interface. The sputtering growth process can be described by a noisy Kuramoto Sivashinsky equation. But for electron beam evaporation, desorption effect of atom or atomic clusters can be neglected, then the dynamic behavior of growth may be described by Mulliins diffusion model. It was also found that the temperature of substrates had great effect on the morphology of grown interface during the deposition of films.