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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Variation of surface steps on sapphire (0001) and (1120) substrates processed with thermal annealing in air or a reducing environment at 1000 to 1400°C for 1 to 10 hours were investigated with an atomic force microscope (AFM). The annealed (0001) surfaces consist of atomically smooth and large terraces and atomic-height steps, whose configurations strongly depend on annealing conditions. On the (1120) surfaces, where crystallographic misorientation is almost an order of magnitude larger than that of the (0001) surfaces, step height and terraces increase in size with the longer annealing time and higher annealing temperature. Characteristic step figures due to the symmetry of atomic arrangement were observed on the (0001) surface.