Evidence for honeycomb-chained trimer structure of multilayer silicene on Ag(111) with noncontact atomic force microscopy

The structure of multilayer silicene on Ag(111) was examined by noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM) with atomic resolution. We obtained topographic images of multilayer silicene with specific features depending on the tip-to-sample distance and the tip apex. Our results strongly suggest that multilayer silicene on Ag(111) has the same surface structure as the honeycomb-chained trimer structure of Si(111) √3 x √3 R30°-Ag rather than Si honeycomb structures. This study opens a new method for structure determination using the diversity of AFM imaging patterns dominated by interactions between tip and surface. (author)