title: Evidence for Germanene growth on epitaxial hexagonal (h)-AlN on Ag(1 1 1).
abstract: In this work, a structural analysis of Ge layers deposited by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Ag(1 1 1) surfaces with and without an AlN buffer layer have been investigated by x-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) at the Ge-K edge. For the Ge layers deposited on h-AlN buffer layer on Ag(1 1 1) an interatomic Ge-Ge distance [Formula: see text] Å is found, typical of 2-Dimensional Ge layers and in agreement with the theoretical predictions for free standing low-buckled Germanene presented in literature. First principles calculations, performed in the density functional theory (DFT) framework, supported the experimental RHEED and XAS findings, providing evidence for the epitaxial 2-D Ge layer formation on h-AlN/Ag(1 1 1) template.
authors.affiliation: CNR-IOM-OGG c/o European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, F-38043 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: d'Acapito
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torrengo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Xenogiannopoulou
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tsipas
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marquez Velasco
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tsoutsou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dimoulas