) Physics Faculty, Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow, Russia.
) Two-dimensional Fourier-transform of digital SEM, TEM and AFM images of surface of solids macro and nano-structured by such diverse technique as electrochemical etching of pores in semiconductors [1], UV pulsed laser re-crystallization of thin amorphous semiconductor films and atomic beam laser-controlled deposition of nanoparticles on glass substrate (fibers) [2] reveals similar long-range quasi-hexagonal order in spatial distribution of surface inhomogeneities. Up to now in all above cases this distribution was considered to be random. Besides, the Fourier-transform demonstrates the possibility of controlling some properties of the ensemble of these inhomogeneities (pores, crystalline grains, nanoparticles) by external influence (stress or laser intensity distribution).
We describe the formation of long-range quasi-hexagonal order and other experimental data on the base of a general Defect-Deformational (DD) theory of spontaneous formation of surface periodic macro and nano DD structures [3]. Non-equilibrium surface defects (interstitials, vacancies and adatoms), generated at initial stage of the process of surface treatment (etching, laser-induced melting and atomic beam deposition) and interacting through long-range elastic field, are shown to self-organize in threshold manner with formation of surface periodic DD structures, which serve as seeding "masks" foisting its symmetry and periodicity to resulting developed structures.
