  The scaling behavior of cyclical growth (e.g. cycles of alternating
deposition and desorption primary processes) is investigated theoretically and
probed experimentally. The scaling approach to kinetic roughening is
generalized to cyclical processes by substituting the time by the number of
cycles $n$. The roughness is predicted to grow as $n^{\beta}$ where $\beta$ is
the cyclical growth exponent. The roughness saturates to a value which scales
with the system size $L$ as $L^{\alpha}$, where $\alpha$ is the cyclical
roughness exponent. The relations between the cyclical exponents and the
corresponding exponents of the primary processes are studied. Exact relations
are found for cycles composed of primary linear processes. An approximate
renormalization group approach is introduced to analyze non-linear effects in
the primary processes. The analytical results are backed by extensive numerical
simulations of different pairs of primary processes, both linear and
non-linear. Experimentally, silver surfaces are grown by a cyclical process
composed of electrodeposition followed by 50% electrodissolution. The roughness
is found to increase as a power-law of $n$, consistent with the scaling
behavior anticipated theoretically. Potential applications of cyclical scaling
include accelerated testing of rechargeable batteries, and improved
chemotherapeutic treatment of cancerous tumors.
