The Renaissance and Golden Age of Epitaxial Dry Germanene

Germanene, as an artificial graphene-like near room temperature topological insulator, compatible with ubiquitous silicon technology, is potentially the most promising artificial Xene for ultra-scale nanoelectronics. Here, we follow its emergence and development when prepared in situ under ultra-high vacuum in clean and controlled conditions by dry epitaxy on prominent metal surfaces (e.g., aluminum, silver, gold). We describe its predicted electronic properties and its birth in 2014, even if it was just a renaissance, as it was only understood after 51 years after an undeciphered birth certificate lost in oblivion. We emphasize the lifting of germanene flakes from an aluminum template with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, and their repositioning to form bilayer germanene with Bernal stacking. Finally, we discuss the growth of monolayer germanene in a single phase harboring Dirac fermions, following a bottom-up synthesis strategy by segregation on a gold thin film in epitaxy on a germanium support.

Automated summary

Germanene, an artificial graphene-like material, shows topological insulator properties at room temperature and is compatible with silicon technology, making it a promising candidate for nanoelectronics. Researchers prepared germanene using dry epitaxy on metal surfaces and studied its predicted electronic properties. They also investigated the growth of germanene using a bottom-up synthesis strategy on a gold thin film supported by germanium, resulting in monolayer germanene with Dirac fermions.