Strain effects of missing dimer defects on dimer buckling of the Si(100) surface

Abstract

We observed a characteristic dimer buckling pattern around a missing dimer defect on the Si͑100͒ surface near the critical temperature by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒. We studied the dynamical properties of this surface by using a Monte Carlo technique on the model Ising system, regarding the buckled dimers as Ising spins. We determined the interaction parameters by the ab initio calculations within local-density approximation. The simulated STM images were in good agreement with the observed images in the whole temperature range.