(Invited) Silicene As a 2D Material Candidate

Silicene, a new Si-based 2D material with a graphene-like honeycomb structure, has attracted considerable interest, because its topology confers to it the same remarkable electronic properties as those of graphene [1]. Contrary to graphene, silicene does not exist in nature and had to be synthesized on a substrate material, such as Ag(111) [2]. In comparison to graphene, such silicene layers  might have a potential advantage of being easily integrated in current Si-based nano/micro-electronics offering novel technological applications. Only very recently the first silicene transistor was reported, based on silicene layers grown on a Ag(111) substrate [3]. 

In this talk the recent development in epitaxial formation of single layer silicene will be reviewed, including structural and electronic properties for different silicene and 2D-Si layers. Furthermore, the formation of silicene double-layer and multi-layer structures will be discussed [4]. Different structure models will be compared to experimental results in order to unveil the nature of these layered materials. Such a detailed understanding of single/multi-layer silicene structures and their formation is crucial in order to optimize the performance of future devices which are based on such layers.

We will also discuss the stability of single/multi-layer silicene upon heating and oxidation and look a possible modifications of silicene by adsorbates. It is expected that silicene can be functionalized this way, which could open a new way for the application of Si in electronic devices.   

1)    G. G. Guzmán-Verri and L. C. Lew Yan Voon, Phys. Rev. B 76, 075131 (2007); S. Lebègue and O. Eriksson, Phys. Rev. B, 79 115409 (2009); S. Cahangirov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 236804    (2009).

2)    P. Vogt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 55501 (2012); C.-L. Lin et al., Appl. Phys. Exp. 5, 045802 (2012); B. Feng et al., Nano Lett. 11, 3507 (2012).

3)    Li Tao et al., Nature Nanotechnology (2015).

4)    P. Vogt et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 021602(2014), P. De Padova et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 163106 (2013)