Synthesis of Monolayer Blue Phosphorus Enabled by Silicon Intercalation

The growth of entirely synthetic two-dimensional (2D) materials could further expand the library of naturally occurring layered solids and provide opportunities to design materials with finely tunable properties. Among them, the synthesis of elemental 2D materials is of particular interest as they represent the chemically simplest case and serve as a model system for exploring the on-surface synthesis mechanism. Here, a pure atomically thin blue phosphorus (BlueP) monolayer is synthesized via silicon intercalation of the BlueP-Au alloy on Au(111). The intercalation process is characterized at the atomic scale by low-temperature scanning probe microscopy and further corroborated by synchrotron radiation-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The evolution of the band structures from the BlueP-Au alloy into Si-intercalated BlueP are clearly revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and further verified by density functional theory calculations.