Seminars Archive

New Synthetic Silicon Allotropes in 0, 1, and 2 Dimensions

Abstract
In this seminar, I will tell the saga of the discovery of new synthetic epitaxial Si allotropes grown on silver substrates and characterized, from the atomic to the macroscopic scales, by a number of advanced techniques, several of them being synchrotron radiation based. It starts with benzene-like nanodots [1], continues with massively parallel, symmetry-breaking, pentasilicene-like chiral nanoribbons [1], and, finally, ends with single layer [2,3] and multilayer silicene [4]. “The growth and properties of silicene” is a Hot Research Front [5], especially since silicene sheets, as 2D topological insulators, are promising candidates for the emergence of the Quantum Spin Hall Effect [6]. In my presentation I will discuss issues and prospects related to these novel Si-based materials, which have given the impetus to start experimental studies for synthesizing their elemental artificial cousins, typically, germanene [7], stanene [8], borophene [9] and blue phosphorene [10]. [1] Jorge I. Cerdá et al., Nature Communications, 7, 13076 (2016). [2] Patrick Vogt et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 108, 155501 (2012). [3] Dmytro Solonenko et al., 2D Materials, in print. [4] Paola De Padova et al., 2D Materials, 3, 031011 (2016). [5] Charles Day, Physics Today, 25 September 2015 [6] Cheng-Cheng Liu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 107, 076802 (2011). [7] Maria Eugenia Davila et al., Scientific Reports, 6, 20714 (2016). [8] Feng-feng Zhu et al., Nature Materials, [9] Zhuhua Zhang et al., Nano Letters, 16, 6622 (2016). [10] Jia Lin Zhang et al., Nano Letters, 16, 4909 (2016).