Local Electronic Properties of Corrugated Silicene Phases

Abstract

The structural and electronic properties of silicene nanosheets epitaxially grown on Ag(111) are systematically investigated by combining scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. By carefully tuning the growth parameters, complex 2D silicon structures are obtained, which evidence the presence of corrugated silicene domains. Local modifications of the density of states are observed throughout reconstructed silicene domains and are attributed to the symmetry breaking induced by the interactions with the Ag lattice, in analogy with the case of graphene. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.