Structural and phase analysis of Ge(111)$c$(2 $\times$ 8), Si(100)(2 $\times$ 1), and BaO/Si(100) surfaces by means of height histograms in scanning tunneling microscopy

We demonstrate that quantitative analysis of topography height distributions in scanning tunneling microscopy can be utilized to probe not only the surface roughness but also the atomic arrangement, morphological structure, and phase composition of various samples. The implementation of such analysis is reported for well-known model surfaces, such as Ge(111)$c$(2 $\times$ 8) and Si(100)(2 $\times$ 1), as well as the BaO/Si(100) thin-film system prepared at different temperatures.