Single atom metallic wires of arbitrary length are of immense technological
and scientific interest. We describe a novel silicon-only template enabling the
self-organised growth of isolated micrometer long surface and subsurface
single-atom chains. It consists of a one dimensional, defect-free
reconstruction - the Haiku core, here revealed for the first time in details -
self-assembled on hydrogenated Si(001) terraces, independent of any step edges.
We discuss the potential of this Si-in-Si template as an appealing alternative
to vicinal surfaces for nanoscale patterning.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
