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We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to characterize the surface of epitaxial gold on mica in air. We find that these surfaces are simple to prepare, are relatively inert to exposure to air or to water, and have atomically flat terraces extending for up to several hundred angstroms. The observed topography is consistent with the Au(111) surface. It is possible to produce bumps on the surface of less than 100 Å in size in a controlled manner by pulsing the tip voltage while scanning. Self-diffusion of gold is observed in the decay of written features and well as in the movement of existing terrace edges. In some cases, a periodicity in both the geometry of terrace edges and the spatial variation of surface diffusion rates suggest the presence of the 22×1 surface reconstruction.

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