Epitaxial fabrication of AgTe monolayer on Ag(111) and the sequential growth of Te film

Abstract

Transition-metal chalcogenides (TMCs) materials have attracted increasing interest both for fundamental research and industrial applications. Among all these materials, twodimensional (2D) compounds with honeycomb-like structure possess exotic electronic structures. Here, we report a systematic study of TMC monolayer AgTe fabricated by direct depositing Te on the surface of Ag(111) and annealing. Few intrinsic defects are observed and studied by scanning tunneling microscopy, indicating that there are two kinds of AgTe domains and they can form gliding twin-boundary. Then, the monolayer AgTe can serve as the template for the following growth of Te film. Meanwhile, some Te atoms are observed in the form of chains on the top of the bottom Te film. Our findings in this work might provide insightful guide for the epitaxial growth of 2D materials for study of novel physical properties and for future quantum devices.

Metal to semiconductor switching in the AgTe monolayer via decoration with alkali metal and alkaline earth metal atoms: a first-principles perspective

“…The results clearly revealed that the AgSe monolayer with a hexagonal lattice possesses two DNLFs protected by the inversion of the mirror symmetry when neglecting spin-orbit coupling (SOC). 26 In addition to the AgSe monolayer, Liu et al 27 and Dong et al 28 experimentally synthesized monolayer AgTe by tellurium (Te) deposition on the Ag(111) surface. Interestingly, angle-resolved photoemission supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations have unequivocally confirmed that the AgTe layer is thermodynamically and chemically stable with a planar hexagonal structure and it possesses two DNLFs whose stability depends on the presence of the SOC effect.…”