The surface damage which was produced at (111) surfaces, by single impacts of rare gas ions with energies of as little as a few hundred eV, was investigated by using scanning tunnelling microscopic methods. It was found that, in addition to craters and adatom islands, there were also characteristic reconstruction patterns in the vicinity of the ion impacts. It was shown that these reconstructed areas were nuclei for a reconstruction network which was induced by Pt vapor-phase deposition.

C.Teichert, M.Hohage, T.Michely, G.Comsa: Physical Review Letters, 1994, 72[11], 1682-5