Realization of free-standing silicene using bilayer graphene

Journal Article · Mon Dec 23 04:00:00 EST 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4852636· OSTI ID:22253206

Neek-Amal, M. ^[1]; Sadeghi, A. ^[2]; Berdiyorov, G. R.; Peeters, F. M. ^[1]

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1. Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerpen (Belgium)
2. Department of Physics, Basel University, Klingelbergestrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel (Switzerland)

The available synthesized silicene-like structures have been only realized on metallic substrates which are very different from the standalone buckled silicene, e.g., the Dirac cone of silicene is destroyed due to lattice distortion and the interaction with the substrate. Using graphene bilayer as a scaffold, a route is proposed to synthesize silicene with electronic properties decoupled from the substrate. The buckled hexagonal arrangement of silicene between the graphene layers is found to be very similar to the theoretically predicted standalone buckled silicene which is only very weakly van der Waals coupled to the graphene layers with a graphite-like interlayer distance of 3.42 Å and without any lattice distortion. We found that these stacked layers are stable well above room temperature.

• OSTI ID: 22253206
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 26 Vol. 103; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
GRAPHENE
GRAPHITE
LAYERS
SUBSTRATES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
VAN DER WAALS FORCES