DOI: 10.1063/1.3524215 ISSN:
Epitaxial growth of a silicene sheet
Boubekeur Lalmi, Hamid Oughaddou, Hanna Enriquez, Abdelkader Kara, Sébastien Vizzini, Bénidicte Ealet, Bernard Aufray- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Using atomic resolved scanning tunneling microscopy, we present here the experimental evidence of a silicene sheet (graphenelike structure) epitaxially grown on a close-packed silver surface [Ag(111)]. This has been achieved via direct condensation of a silicon atomic flux onto the single-crystal substrate in ultrahigh vacuum conditions. A highly ordered silicon structure, arranged within a honeycomb lattice, is synthesized and present two silicon sublattices occupying positions at different heights (0.02 nm) indicating possible sp2-sp3 hybridizations.