Scanning tunneling microscopy studies of (001) CdTe, a partially ionic II-VI compound, show novel surface structures with step and 2D islands edges aligned along the [100] crystallographic directions. This behaviour, which is not observed in covalent material, is interpreted in the framework of a model incorporating electrostatic interactions in the calculation of the energy of charged steps that could explain why the free energy of [100] steps lies below that of the [110] and [1 (1) over bar 0] steps. These results provide new insights about the microscopic growth mode of CdTe especially by atomic layer epitaxy. The energetics of the vicinal surfaces is also strongly influenced by these effects which allows one to organize C-type and A-type surfaces in staircase and checkerboard arrays. These self organized templates are, respectively, used to grow quantum wires and quantum dots.