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 heated to more than 200°C. The resulting silicene is corrugated and seems to have similar electronic properties to graphene.
Other researchers have reported making silicene before, but Vogt and colleagues say that they have provided more conclusive evidence, including microscopy images and measurements of the material's electrical and chemical properties.
Change history
10 May 2012
This article originally said that for deposition on the silver surface, the silicon wafer was heated to more than 200 ºC. In fact, the silver surface was heated to this temperature, the silicon was heated to more than 1,000 ºC. The text has been corrected to reflect this.
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Graphene's silicon cousin. Nature 485, 9 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485009a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/485009a
