title: Buckled silicene formation on Ir(111).
abstract: Silicene, a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb structure similar to graphene, has been successfully fabricated on an Ir(111) substrate. It is characterized as a (√7×√7) superstructure with respect to the substrate lattice, as revealed by low energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy. Such a superstructure coincides with the (√3×√3) superlattice of silicene. First-principles calculations confirm that this is a (√3×√3)silicene/(√7×√7)Ir(111) configuration and that it has a buckled conformation. Importantly, the calculated electron localization function shows that the silicon adlayer on the Ir(111) substrate has 2D continuity. This work provides a method to fabricate high-quality silicene and an explanation for the formation of the buckled silicene sheet.
authors: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Meng
authors: Yeliang
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Lizhi
authors: L
authors: Zhang
authors: Shixuan
authors: S
authors: Du
authors: Rongting
authors: R
authors: Wu
authors: Linfei
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Geng
authors: G
authors: Li
authors: Haitao
authors: H
authors: Zhou
authors: Werner A
authors: WA
authors: Hofer
authors: Hong-Jun
authors: HJ
authors: Gao