Strong resistance of silicene nanoribbons towards oxidation

Silicene, the new allotropic form of silicon, represents an interesting promise for future new nanostructured materials. Here, we investigate the room temperature oxidation of a one-dimensional grating of silicene nanoribbons grown on a Ag(1 1 0) surface by high-resolution Si 2p core level photoemission spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction observations. The oxidation process starts at very high oxygen exposures, about 104 times higher than on the clean Si(1 1 1) 7 x 7 surface, which demonstrates the low reactivity of silicene to molecular oxygen. Ar+ sputtering produces defects, which enhance the oxidation uptake.