Wang Yeliang

Fabrication and properties of silicene and silicene–graphene layered structures on Ir (111)*

Silicene, a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb structure similar to graphene, has been successfully fabricated on various substrates. This work will mainly review the syntheses and the corresponding properties of silicene and silicene–graphene layered structures on Ir (111) substrates. For silicene on Ir (111), the buckled silicene/ Ir (111) configuration and its electronic structure are fully discussed. For silicene–graphene layered structures, silicene layer can be constructed underneath graphene layer by an intercalation method. These results indicate the possibility of integrating silicene with graphene and may link up with potential applications in nanoelectronics and related areas.

Characterizing silicon intercalated graphene grown epitaxially on Ir films by atomic force microscopy

An efficient method based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been developed to characterize silicon intercalated graphene grown on single crystalline Ir(111) thin films. By combining analyses of the phase image, force curves, and friction–force mapping, acquired by AFM, the locations and coverages of graphene and silicon oxide can be well distinguished. We can also demonstrate that silicon atoms have been successfully intercalated between graphene and the substrate. Our method gives an efficient and simple way to characterize graphene samples with interacted atoms and is very helpful for future applications of graphene-based devices in the modern microelectronic industry, where AFM is already widely used.