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arXiv · 1803.09865

Epitaxial growth of highly strained antimonene on Ag (111)

Ya-Hui Mao·Li-Fu Zhang·Hui-Li Wang·Huan Shan·Xiao-Fang Zhai·Zhen-Peng Hu·Ai-Di Zhao·Bing Wang
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Abstract

The synthesis of antimonene, which is a promising group-V 2D material for both fundamental studies and technological applications, remains highly challenging. Thus far, it has been synthesized only by exfoliation or growth on a few substrates. In this study, we show that thin layers of antimonene can be grown on Ag (111) by molecular beam epitaxy. High-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy combined with theoretical calculations revealed that the submonolayer Sb deposited on a Ag (111) surface forms a layer of AgSb2 surface alloy upon annealing. Further deposition of Sb on the AgSb2 surface alloy causes an epitaxial layer of Sb to form, which is identified as antimonene with a buckled honeycomb structure. More interestingly, the lattice constant of the epitaxial antimonene (5 {\AA}) is much larger than that of freestanding antimonene, indicating a high tensile strain of more than 20%. This kind of large strain is expected to make the antimonene a highly promising candidate for room-temperature quantum spin Hall material.

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Ya-Hui Mao, Li-Fu Zhang, Hui-Li Wang, Huan Shan, Xiao-Fang Zhai, Zhen-Peng Hu, Ai-Di Zhao, Bing Wang. 2018-03-27. Epitaxial growth of highly strained antimonene on Ag (111). https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09865

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