Abstract Recent experimental studies have shown that well-annealed, unstrained Si(1 0 5) surfaces appear disordered and atomically rough when imaged using scanning tunnelling microscopy. We construct new models for the Si(1 0 5) surface that are based on single-and double-height steps separated by Si(0 0 1) terraces, and propose that the observed surface disorder of Si(1 0 5) originates from the presence of several structural models with different atomic-scale features but similar energies. This degeneracy can be removed by applying compressive strains, a result that is consistent with recent observations of the structure of the Ge/Si While the structure of Ge/Si(1 0 5) surface has been recently elucidated, the Si(1 0 5) surface shows intriguing features that are not well understood. Experimental work by Tomitori et al. [8], Fujikawa et al. [5] and Zhao et al
