Linfei Li, Héloïse Tissot, S. Shaikhutdinov
Jan 30, 2017
Citations
0
Influential Citations
13
Citations
Journal
Chemistry of Materials
Abstract
S (SiO2) is one of the key materials in many modern technological applications including microelectronics, catalysis, and photonics. As an ultrathin film grown on metal surfaces, silica becomes an attracting material for a new generation of the metal oxide−semiconductor transistors and further miniaturization of electronic devices. The structural motif of such films is a hexagonal layer of corner sharing SiO4 tetrahedra, i.e., a single silicate layer or the socalled “silicatene”, which nicely fits a growing family of truly two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene, silicene, etc. Although technologically relevant properties of ultrathin silicate films, so far addressed by theory (see, for instance, ref 10), remain to be thoroughly explored in experiments, the controllable preparation of the well-defined, crystalline films is crucial for establishing and understanding of their structure− property relationships, which can, in turn, provide a basis for their potential application. In the great majority of cases, single-layer silicate films are obtained in the crystalline form, most likely due to the strong interaction with the metal single crystal surface via Si−O−metal linkages, whereas a silicate bilayer terminated by oxygen on either side is weakly bound to the metal surface and primarily exists in the laterally amorphous state. The latter is now recognized as a 2D analogue of silica glass, which allows glass transitions to be studied at the atomic level. Figure 1a