Is Silicene the Next Graphene?

TL;DR

This review explores silicene, a silicon-based two-dimensional material similar to graphene, highlighting its synthesis, physical properties, differences from graphene, and potential applications in electronics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of silicene's properties, synthesis challenges, and potential uses, emphasizing its differences from graphene and significance for future electronics.

Findings

Silicene exhibits Dirac electronic dispersion like graphene.

It can open a bandgap under an electric field or on substrates.

Potential applications include digital electronics and sensors.

Abstract

This article reviews silicene, a relatively new allotrope of silicon, which can also be viewed as the silicon version of graphene. Graphene is a two-dimensional material with unique electronic properties qualitatively different from those of standard semiconductors such as silicon. While many other two-dimensional materials are now being studied, our focus here is solely on silicene. We first discuss its synthesis and the challenges presented. Next, a survey of some of its physical properties is provided. Silicene shares many of the fascinating properties of graphene, such as the so-called Dirac electronic dispersion. The slightly different structure, however, leads to a few major differences compared to graphene, such as the ability to open a bandgap in the presence of an electric field or on a substrate, a key property for digital electronics applications. We conclude with a brief survey of some of the potential applications of silicene.