We report on the experimental realization of straight atomic wires of Si oil a vicinal Si(111) substrate. Atomic-kink-free steps with an identical structure are formed on the clean substrate by prolonged annealing around 800 degrees C. The direction of the annealing DC current that is effective to extend the straight step region is the so-called kink-up direction. Furthermore, the step-edge structure obtained is serendipitously suitable for the exclusive growth of the single adatom wires by molecular beam epitaxy. Ail isotopic version of such a structure is expected to be the most basic building block for a silicon-based quantum computer. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.