A scanning tunnelling microscope was used to extract atoms that were adjacent to native defects on the (001) surface. A spatially anisotropic extraction frequency was found for the various sites around a so-called C defect. The most common occurrence was the extraction of Si atoms from a C defect to form a double dimer vacancy. The extraction of double dimers from the neighboring dimer row on one side of the defect was also observed, but dimers in the neighboring dimer row on the other side of the defect, and dimers which were adjacent to the defect in the same row, were rarely extracted. In the case of native dimer vacancy defects, few neighboring Si atoms were found to be extracted.

A.Kobayashi, F.Grey, E.Snyder, M.Aono: Physical Review B, 1994, 49[12], 8067-70