The discovery of (4x4) silicene formation on Ag(111) raised the question on whether silicene maintains its Dirac fermion character, similar to graphene, on a supporting substrate. Previous photoemission studies indicated that the {\pi}-band forms Dirac cones near the Fermi energy, while theoretical investigations found it shifted at deeper binding energy. By means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations we show instead that the {\pi}-symmetry states lose their local character and the Dirac cone fades out. The formation of an interface state of free-electron-like Ag origin is found to account for spectral features that were theoretically and experimentally attributed to silicene bands of {\pi}-character.
@article{arxiv.2306.17524,
title = {Silicene on Ag(111): an honeycomb lattice without Dirac bands},
author = {Sanjoy Kr. Mahatha and Paolo Moras and Valerio Bellini and Polina M. Sheverdyaeva and Claudia Struzzi and Luca Petaccia and Carlo Carbone},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.17524},
year = {2023}
}