Figure 2

STM images of the Si(001) surfaces: (a) the surface with the residual silicon oxide (-1.5 V, 150 pA), annealing at ~925°C for ~2 min; the image is inverted: dark areas correspond to the oxide, the lighter areas represent the deoxidized surface; (b) the clean Si(001) surface (+1.9 V, 70 pA) with the Fourier transform pattern shown in the inset, annealing at ~925°C for ~3 min [14].