We have used scanning tunnelling microscopy to investigate the Si(111) 7 × 7 reconstruction on narrow terraces separated by multiple-step edges as high as several nanometers. Atomic resolution with a corrugation of up to 2.5 Å could be achieved on both sides of these multiple step edges indicating a remarkable stability of the scanning tip. Besides the alignment of the step direction, we have studied defects in the vicinity of the step edges. Such defects occur preferentially on the lower terrace adjacent to a step edge, which can be explained by the growth behaviour of the 7 × 7 phase upon cooling.
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Wiesendanger et al. (1990) studied this question.
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