Reflection electron microscopy of clean and gold deposited (111) silicon surfaces

Reflection electron microscopy in ultra high vacuum has been performed during the process of thermal cleaning which converts the dirty (111) silicon surface of the 1 × 1 structure to the clean surface of the 7 × 7 structure, and during the transformations of the 7 × 7 structure to the 5 × 1, √3 × √3 and 6 × 6 structures produced by deposition of gold up to a few monatomic layers. The reflection images showed the microtopographical aspects of the process and of the transformations to be in close correlation with the structural information given by the reflection diffraction patterns observed simultaneously.