The influence of substrate temperature on the adsorption of submonolayer Au on anSi(111)-(7 × 7) surface was investigated using a scanning tunneling microscope. With a small amount of Au depositedat room temperature, Au atoms form small clusters located inside the half unit cells (HUCs) of theSi(111)-(7 × 7) surface while most parts of the surface are undisturbed. When the substrate temperatureduring deposition of the same Au amounts increases from room temperature up to565 °C,the small Au clusters grow, coalesce into larger clusters, incorporate Si atoms, and finally form a(5 × 2) reconstruction.The Si(111)-(5 × 2)–Au reconstruction takes place in the form of island–hole pairs on a terrace, whereas onlyholes are formed in the upper terrace at a step. Both the islands and the holes display the(5 × 2) reconstruction. The occurrence of the island–hole pairs of the(5 × 2) reconstruction results from the fact that the Si atom density in the(5 × 2) reconstruction islower than in the (7 × 7) reconstruction.