Step energetics of Pb(111) vicinal surfaces from facet shape

The step stiffness, step interaction and kink formation energies of steps v icinal to (111) have been derived from the equilibrium shape of a (111) fac et on a small three-dimensional Pb crystal imaged by scanning tunneling mic roscopy. In addition, the azimuthal dependence of the step free energy for vicinal (111) surfaces has been obtained by an 'inverse' Wulff construction from the facet shape. Most of these energetic quantities can be quoted for both types of step (A- and B-steps). By also taking into account the curve d portion of the vicinal surface, consisting primarily of B-steps, the entr opic and total step interaction energy of B-steps can be separately obtaine d. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.