Highly regular arrays of steps are produced on vicinal Si͑111͒7ϫ7. The step edges are atomically straight for up to 2ϫ10 4 lattice sites. The terraces are single domain, which produces a minimum kink width of 2.3 nm ͑half a 7ϫ7 unit cell͒ and thus a high barrier for creating kinks. Criteria for obtaining optimum step arrays are established, such as the miscut ͓Ϸ1°towards ͑112͔͒ and an annealing sequence which passes through step bunching regions quickly.
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