Eugenio Cinquanta

The structural and electronic properties of a Si nanosheet (NS) grown onto a MoS2 substrate by means of molecular beam epitaxy are assessed. Epitaxially grown Si is shown to adapt to the trigonal prismatic surface lattice of MoS2 by forming two-dimensional nanodomains. The Si layer structure is distinguished from the underlying MoS2 surface structure. The local electronic properties of the Si nanosheet are dictated by the atomistic arrangement of the layer and unlike the MoS2 hosting substrate they are qualified by a gap-less density of states.

Silicene is sometimes thought of as the Si alter ego of graphene. However, experimental evidence indicates that silicene is substantially different from graphene in terms of its stability, atomic structure, electronic properties, and device process issues. Some of these aspects hamper the feasibility of silicene for practical application, but at the same time they may offer routes to engineer or functionalize silicene as a complementary material to graphene if a good control of the material can be achieved. As such, the research on silicene runs along the cutting edge between unsurmountable limitation and pioneering opportunities. In the present review, we examine the issues that are representative of this dual edge and try to make a preliminary balance of the state-of-the-art features of this material. Each relevant topic will be explored in a dedicated section. We start with the introduction of 'experimental' silicene in the so-called 'flatland' from the point of view of technology drivers and of its conceptual precursor, freestanding silicene. We then explore the following: specific aspects of the silicene on substrates; the tendency of silicene to have multiple structural forms (what we call the polymorphic nature of silicene) the role of the strong hybridization with the substrate in the electronic band structure of silicene; the Raman spectrum of silicene, and silicene processing and integration into a transistor. Finally we conclude by proposing an investigation into silicene's emerging contemporaries in the realm of elementary two-dimensional materials. Mindful of ongoing discussions and current issues, we try to go to the heart of the problems by treating each topic objectively and scientifically and we then provide our personal views in the discussion.

Abstract The chemical stability of buckled silicene, i.e., the silicon counterpart of graphene, is investigated then resulting in a low reactivity with O 2 when dosing up to 1000 L and in a progressive oxidation under ambient conditions. The latter drawback is addressed by engineering ad hoc Al‐ and Al 2 O 3 ‐based encapsulations of the silicene layer. This encapsulation design can be generally applied to any silicene configuration, irrespective of the support substrate, and it leads to the fabrication of atomically sharp and chemically intact Al/silicene and Al 2 O 3 /silicene interfaces that can be functionally used for ex situ characterization as well as for gated device fabrication.

We study the nature of photoexcited charge carriers in CsPbBr_{3} nanocrystal thin films by ultrafast optical pump-THz probe spectroscopy. We observe a deviation from a pure Drude dispersion of the THz dielectric response that is ascribed to the polaronic nature of carriers; a transient blueshift of observed phonon frequencies is indicative of the coupling between photogenerated charges and stretching-bending modes of the deformed inorganic sublattice, as confirmed by DFT calculations.