We study the structural and electronic properties of silicene on solid Ar(111) substrate using ab-initio calculations. We demonstrate that due to weak interaction quasi-freestanding silicene is realized in this system. The small binding energy of only −32 meV per Si atom also indicates the possibility to separate silicene from the solid Ar(111) substrate. In addition, a band gap of 11 meV and a significant splitting of the energy levels due to spin-orbit coupling are observed.
@article{arxiv.1406.6197,
title = {Solid argon as a possible substrate for quasi-freestanding silicene},
author = {S. Sattar and R. Hoffmann and U. Schwingenschlögl},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.6197},
year = {2014}
}