Figure_1.. (IMAGE)
Caption
Top panel: Transformation of epitaxial-silicene on ZrB2 from domain structure to single-domain. The labels a,b,c and d represent four different shifts of the silicene lattice resulting from the presence of the dislocations. Silicon atoms in the domains, boundaries and on top of Zr are blue, yellow and red respectively. The Topmost Zr atoms are colored grey. The dark grey Zr atoms are used to visualize the shifts of the domains visualized by the positions of red atoms. They correspond to the positions of red Si atoms for a single-domain a. The green lines compare the positions of the Si atoms before and after merging of four successive domains into a single-domain a through the reaction of 4 dislocations. A row of Si atoms (colored in pink) can then be incorporated into the resulting gap. Bottom panel: STM images showing the path found by nature to resolve this atomistic puzzle. Left: Nucleation of a single-domain island through the stepwise reaction of dislocations. The circles denote a Si cluster that disappears together with domain c which indicates that Si atoms were integrated in the silicene sheet at this stage of the transformation. Right: Propagation of a single domain after its nucleation. The blue lines indicate the interface between the single-domain and the domain structure. The circles point to the same group of Si clusters. The time intervals between the captures of the STM images are indicated.
Credit
Antoine Fleurence from JAIST
Usage Restrictions
not
License
Original content