Scanning tunnelling microscopy was used to investigate defects and atomic migration on 1 x 2 (110) reconstructed surfaces at room temperature. Time-lapse topography revealed that distinct changes occurred at step structures and domain walls. These features could be classified into basic building blocks in order to model surface disorder. From the relative changes which occurred at each element, a local description of mass transport could then be obtained. Local transport via kinks which occurred along atomic rows of the superstructure in the [1¯10] direction was found to predominate. Unique atomic structures were produced by bulk dislocations.

J.K.Gimzewski, R.Berndt, R.R.Schlittler: Physical Review B, 1992, 45[12], 6844-57