Graphene's silicon cousin

摘要

Silicon can form two-dimensional honeycomb sheets one atom thick. This material - known as silicene - is the silicon equivalent of carbon-based graphene, and could fit more easily into industrial silicon-based circuits than graphene.Patrick Vogt at the Technical University of Berlin, Paola De Padova at the Institute of Structure of Matter in Rome and their colleagues deposited a single layer of silicon onto a silver surface by heating a piece of silicon wafer to more than 200°C. The resulting silicene is corrugated and seems to have similar electronic properties to graphene.