Experimental Evidence for Epitaxial Silicene on Diboride Thin Films

As the Si counterpart of graphene, silicene may be defined as an at least partially sp2-hybridized, atom-thick honeycomb layer of Si that possesses π-electronic bands. Here we show that two-dimensional, epitaxial silicene forms through surface segregation on zirconium diboride thin films grown on Si wafers. A particular buckling of silicene induced by the epitaxial relationship with the diboride surface leads to a direct π-electronic band gap at the Γ point. These results demonstrate that the buckling and thus the electronic properties of silicene are modified by epitaxial strain.

• MO
  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• UO
  University of Tokyo
• JS
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

  Award: 22560006