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The first low-temperature scanning-tunneling-microscope (STM) images of Si (001) are presented. It is observed that on cooling to 120 K the number of buckled dimers increases, confirming that dimers have an asymmetric character. Buckled-dimer domains of c (42) order are bounded by p (22) regions. Defects pin nearby dimers into a buckled configuration and act to smear out the transition to order. At room temperature dimers rapidly switch orientation leading to an averaged symmetric appearance in STM images.
Robert A. Wolkow (Mon,) studied this question.