title: Experimental evidence for epitaxial silicene on diboride thin films.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleurence
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Friedlein
authors.forename: Taisuke
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozaki
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamada-Takamura