Reply to " Comment on ' Step structure of vicinal Ge ( 001 ) surfaces

In the preceding comment of Sato et al., these authors claim that only the rebonded SB step edge is found on the stepped Ge(001) surface. In our paper [1] we have concluded that the SB step on the Ge(001) surface exhibits both the rebonded as well as the nonbonded configuration [2]. Sato and coworkers agree with us in so far that they also discern two configurations in their STM images, namely a uniformly rebonded SB step (ur-SB step) and an isolatedly rebonded SB step (ir-SB step). The ur-SB step corresponds with what we have denoted as the rebonded SB step. For the nonbonded SB step we have proposed two configurations: one configuration has a shifted dimer, the other one is made up of kinks of length 2 X a 0 and is oriented along the [010] direction. Sato and co-workers also discern these configurations but they argue that these configurations correspond to the ir-SB step. So, there is consensus about what we have denoted as the rebonded SB step, and the disagreement is about whether the two configurations of the nonbonded SB step are actually nonbonded or of the ir-SB type. Sato and co-workers use the following argument that the nonbonded SB edges are in fact isolatedly