The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope was used to perturb a specific local structure (the C defect) of a (100) surface at 80K. A dynamic symmetrical ↔ buckled transition of the surrounding dimers was then observed. The large-scale transition implied that the configuration of the dimers was determined by a detailed balance among many elastic long-range forces that were generated by the surrounding C defects.

Surface dynamics studied by perturbing the surface with the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope K.Hata, M.Ishida, K.Miyake, H.Shigekawa: Applied Physics Letters, 1998, 73[1], 40-2