Silicene nanosheets intercalated in slightly defective epitaxial graphene on a 4H-SiC(0001) substrate
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2022

In the last years, epitaxial graphene (epi-Gr) demonstrated to be an excellent substrate for the synthesis of epitaxial or intercalated two dimensional (2D) materials. Among 2D materials, silicene has been for a long time a dream for the scientific community, for its importance both from the fundamental and the application point of view. Despite the theoretical prediction of silicene energetic viability, experimentally the substrate proved to play a fundamental role in the Si atom adsorption process leading, in case of metal substrates, to a mixed phase formation and, for van der Waals chemical inert substrates, to Si atom intercalation even at room temperature. Such an intercalation has been associated to the presence of surface defects. Very recently it has been shown that hundreds of nanometer area quasi-free standing silicene can be grown on top of an almost ideal epi-Gr layer synthesized on 6H-SiC substrate. In the present paper, using scanning tunneling microscopy and Raman analysis, we demonstrate that a non-ideal (slightly defective) epi-Gr network obtained by thermal decomposition of Si-terminated 4H-SiC(0001) enables the Si atom penetration forming intercalated silicene nanosheets at room temperature, thus opening a path towards controlled intercalation of silicon atoms through epi-Gr and formation of silicene nanosheets for future applications in nanotechnology.

Silicene

2D materials

Graphene

Raman spectroscopy

Scanning tunneling microscopy

Van der Waals heterostructure

Författare

Filippo Fabbri

CNR Istituto Nanoscienze, Pisa

Manuela Scarselli

Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

Naveen Shetty

Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Kvantkomponentfysik

2D-Tech

Sergey Kubatkin

Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Kvantkomponentfysik

2D-Tech

Samuel Lara Avila

Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Kvantkomponentfysik

2D-Tech

Mathieu Abel

Aix-Marseille Université

Isabelle Berbezier

Aix-Marseille Université

Holger Vach

Institut Polytechnique de Paris

Matteo Salvato

Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

Maurizio De Crescenzi

Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

Paola Castrucci

Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

Surfaces and Interfaces

2468-0230 (ISSN)

Vol. 33 102262

2D material-baserad teknologi för industriella applikationer (2D-TECH)

VINNOVA (2019-00068), 2020-05-01 -- 2024-12-31.

GKN Aerospace Sweden (2D-tech), 2021-01-01 -- 2024-12-31.

Ämneskategorier

Materialkemi

Annan fysik

Den kondenserade materiens fysik

DOI

10.1016/j.surfin.2022.102262

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2024-02-29