Step morphologies on small-miscut Si(001) surfaces

Abstract

The morphologies of single height atomic steps were studied on Si(001) samples with a miscut of \ensuremath{\sim}0\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}--0.05\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} using dark-field low-energy electron microscopy. In addition to the previously observed wavy step phase we identify a ``hilly'' phase at miscut angles 0.03\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}. This phase exhibits steps in excess of those required by the local miscut, but their morphology is qualitatively different from the straight steps predicted by theory.