Two kinds of defects existing on Si(5 5 12)-$2{\times}1$

Defects existing on the clean Si(5 5 12)-$2{\times}1$, composed of one-dimensional(1-D) structures such as honeycomb (H) chain, $\pi$-bonded ($\pi$) chains, dimer-adatom (D-A) row, and tetramer (T) row, have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). It is found that the defects can be classified to two categories: One is originated from phase boundaries in D-A and T rows having $2{\times}$ periodicities, by which buckling directions are reversed, and the other is caused by missing atoms on $\pi$ chains, D-A rows, and T rows. All these defects are symmetric with respect to the [6 6 $\bar{5}$] direction, which is due to one-dimensional symmetry along the [1 $\bar{1}$ 0] direction. Especially it is worth noticing that on H chains none of such defects exist, which implies that the H chain is energetically the most stable among 1-D structures existing on Si(5 5 12)-$2{\times}1$.