When I anneal FeNi alloys, I can usually observe parallel lines at the micron scale that are the same as the step pattern (for example, there will be parallel lines with a 60° angle on the (111) face and parallel lines with a 90° angle on the (001) face). However, steps on single-crystal metals tend to be nanoscale and should not be visible at the micrometer scale. So what exactly are the ripples in the diagram below?