Becky Cook's jmol series page I


Here's a silicon nanocube, one of whose surfaces has been cut off so that it is no longer parallel to the cubic lattice. If you look at it from an appropriate direction, parallel to the surface, you see plateaus on the surface associated with alternating dimer rows.

Click here for an interactive version of the same nanosilicube model, more clearly labeled with help from a different applet.


Below find an atomic force microscope image of dimer row steps nearly 1000 Angstroms (0.1 microns) apart on a silicon surface, resulting from a "miscut angle" of about 0.08 degrees sloping at an angle of about 45 degrees to both of the alternating dimer row layers. If the miscut slopes perpendicular to one of the dimer rows, one sees parallel steps corresponding to that row separated by zigzag or even invisible steps corresponding to the alternate row. Note that the vertical scale in the image (from dark to bright) is only 5 Angstroms. This may be a clue to the answer for the question above.