2014 年 35 巻 8 号 p. 449-456
We review the recent progress of the study of silicene, which is a honeycomb structure of silicon atoms. Silicene shares many similar properties with graphene but has some extra exciting properties since it is a topological insulator due to its spin-orbit interactions. Silicene has so far been synthesized only on a substrate. The synthesis and the measuring physical properties of silicene are interesting playgrounds of the surface science.