STM observation of rapidly cooled Si(111) vicinal surfaces

The step arrangements on the surfaces of rapidly cooled Si(111) misoriented in [12 3 ] and [ 12 3] are investigated. We show that the step arrangements on the quenched surface are greatly influenced upon the annealing and cooling conditions. We also present the growth process of the (7 × 7) domains on cooling rapidly across the (1 × 1)−(7 × 7) transition temperature.