title: How asymmetric islands become symmetric.
abstract: Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that sputtering of the Au(110) surface results in the formation of vacancy islands with a broken mirror symmetry. These islands exhibit two types of steps on opposite sides: a lower energy (111) step and a higher energy (331) step. We analyze the thermal fluctuations and especially the kink distribution of such vacancy islands. Despite the broken symmetry, which they adopt internally, these islands show a symmetric average outer contour. Their coarsening proceeds via a variety of pathways, often leading to new, symmetric structures, with exclusively (111) steps. The lowest energy vacancy configuration is a bound pair of two vacancy lines or islands.
authors: Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: M J
authors: MJ
authors: Rost
authors: S B
authors: SB
authors: van Albada
authors: J W
authors: JW
authors: Frenken