Adsorption of toxic gases on silicene/Ag(111).

Silicene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial, composed of Si atoms arranged into a buckled honeycomb network. It has become of great interest in recent years due to its remarkable properties such as its natural compatibility with current silicon-based technology. Due to its extreme thinness on the nanoscale, and large lateral dimensions, it has potential applications in gas sensing, gas storage and components in modern electronic devices.

Ultrathin silicon oxynitride layer on GaN for dangling-bond-free GaN/insulator interface.

Despite the scientific and technological importance of removing interface dangling bonds, even an ideal model of a dangling-bond-free interface between GaN and an insulator has not been known. The formation of an atomically thin ordered buffer layer between crystalline GaN and amorphous SiO would be a key to synthesize a dangling-bond-free GaN/SiO interface. Here, we predict that a silicon oxynitride (SiON) layer can epitaxially grow on a GaN(0001) surface without creating dangling bonds at the interface.