germanene

thumb|upright=1.5|(a) Scanning tunneling microscope|STM image of germanene. (b) Profile (black line in (a)) showing step heights of ~3.2  Å. (c) High-resolution STM image (distorted by sample drift). (d) Profiles along the white continuous and dashed lines in (c) showing a ~9–10  Å separation between protrusions having heights of ~0.2  Å. (e) [[Electron diffraction pattern. (f) Model of germanene on Au(111).]] Germanene is a material made up of a single layer of germanium atoms. The material is created in a process similar to that of silicene and graphene, in which high vacuum and high temperature are used to deposit a layer of germanium atoms on a substrate. High-quality thin films of germanene have revealed unusual two-dimensional structures with novel electronic properties suitable for semiconductor device applications and materials science research.

==Preparation and structure== In September 2014, G. Le Lay and others reported the deposition of a single atom thickness, ordered and two-dimensional multi-phase film by molecular beam epitaxy upon a gold surface in a crystal lattice with Miller indices (111). The structure was confirmed with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) revealing a nearly flat honeycomb structure.