Vacancy Island Nucleation and Inverse Growth of InSb(110)

He beam scattering measurements of the erosion of the InSb(110) surface by low-energy Ar+ bombardment are reported. Layer-by-layer erosion is observed for surface temperatures above 510 K and is found to proceed by nucleation of vacancy islands, island growth, and coalescence. The average island distance is measured at different stages of the erosion process and it is found to evolve in good agreement with the rate equations derived from models of island growth by atomic deposition. A general increase of the average terrace width is also observed with increasing number of removed layers. The activation barrier for intralayer diffusion of InSb dimer vacancies is found to be Ed=1.14±0.06 eV.