In this study, the influence of the annealing conditions on the formation of macrosteps on the anthracene single crystal surface is demonstrated. Under normal conditions (room temperature, atmosphere pressure, and ambient light), the anthracene surface etching proceeds in two stages: formation of macrosteps with widths up to 15 μm and heights up to 200 nm and formation of pinning centers with heights exceeding 300 nm and widths up to 3 μm. Ambient light with wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV) range causes the formation of pinning centers on the anthracene surface. In this case, no macrosteps are formed during annealing. In the absence of ambient light, terraces with widths larger than 50μm are formed on the anthracene surface without pinning centers.

In this work, the effect of formation of macrosteps under dissolution of the anthracene single crystal surface is shown for the first time. Under standard conditions (room temperature, atmospheric pressure, natural illumination), the etching process of the anthracene single crystal surface can be divided into two stages: formation of macrosteps up to 15 μm in width and 200 nm in height and formation of the step inhibition centers more than 300 nm in height and up to 3 μm in width. The second stage leads to a significant increase in the surface roughness due to the formation of a wave-like relief.