Abstract
Instabilities in step structure induced by direct-current heating have been measured using STM on Si(111) surfaces with an equilibrium step separation of approximately 1500 Å. The two-dimensional structure of kinetically formed step bunches and associated “crossing arrays” of single-height steps shows qualitatively good agreement with predictions of a generalized theory of step-flow instability. Quantitative analysis of the structures is consistent with the theory. The result provides the first experimental determination of an effective anisotropy ratio governing kinetic step bunching. The measured value of this anisotropy ratio is 0.20 ± 0.03.
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