The transformation of the stripe domain structure of spontaneously-formed epitaxial silicene on ZrB2 thin film into a single-domain driven by the adsorption of a fraction of a monolayer of silicon was used to investigate how dislocations react and eventually annihilate in a two-dimensional honeycomb structure. The in-situ real time STM monitoring of the evolution of the domain structure after Si deposition revealed the mechanisms leading to the nucleation of a single-domain into a domain structure through a stepwise reaction of partial dislocations. After its nucleation, the single-domain extends by the propagation of edge dislocations at its frontiers. The identification of this particular nucleation-propagation formation of dislocation-free silicene sheet provides insights into how crystallographic defects can be healed in two-dimensional materials.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.07519,
title = {Adatom-induced dislocation annihilation in epitaxial silicene},
author = {Antoine Fleurence and Yukiko Yamada-Takamura},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.07519},
year = {2020}
}