Origin of Dirac-cone-like features in silicon structures on Ag(111) and Ag(110)

The recently reported synthesis of silicene in the form of nanoribbons on Ag(110) or 2D epitaxial sheets on Ag(111) aroused considerable interest in the scientific community. Both overlayers were reported to display signatures of Dirac fermions with linearly dispersing electronic bands. In this work, we study the electronic structure of these adsorbate systems within density functional theory. We show that the conical features apparent in angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements are not due to silicon but to the silver substrate, as an effect of band folding induced by the Si overlayer periodicity. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC