Evidence for Dirac fermions in a honeycomb lattice based on silicon

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Aug 3;109(5):056804. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.056804. Epub 2012 Aug 3.

Abstract

Silicene, a sheet of silicon atoms in a honeycomb lattice, was proposed to be a new Dirac-type electron system similar to graphene. We performed scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy studies on the atomic and electronic properties of silicene on Ag(111). An unexpected √3 × √3 reconstruction was found, which is explained by an extra-buckling model. Pronounced quasiparticle interferences (QPI) patterns, originating from both the intervalley and intravalley scatter, were observed. From the QPI patterns we derived a linear energy-momentum dispersion and a large Fermi velocity, which prove the existence of Dirac fermions in silicene.