Growth of Silicene on Iodine/Silver (111) studied by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy

Silicene is the 2D form of silicon. It grows readily on silver (111) as single layers or even bi-layers showing several surface reconstructions in scanning tunneling microscopy images. In an attempt to produce more insulated silicene sheets we grew ~ 0.5 ML of silicon on an almost fully iodine terminated terminated Ag(111) single crystal. For the most part silicene seems to be forming underneath the iodine layer and appears as iodine terminated silicene. In several areas clean silicene sheets were observed. Topographic and spectroscopic data will be discussed.