Interest in the Si/Ag(110) system, which forms highly ordered linear nanostructures coined ‘silicon nanoribbons’, was recently boosted by the claim that such nanoribbons may be formed by silicon atoms arranged in a 2D honeycomb structure as in graphene, i.e. silicene. Despite such a revived interest, many discrepancies still exist in the recently reported results. This paper reports on a systematic investigation by scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron diffraction of the Si/Ag(110) system as a function of the amount of deposited silicon and the deposition temperature. This reveals a complex interplay between these two factors, resulting in a rich array of possible self-assembled nanostructures and surface reconstructions. Several novel findings and clarification of the contradictory results reported in the literature are discussed in this work. In particular, the deposition temperature is demonstrated to be a key parameter to control the width of the Si nanoribbons produced. Recently, massive linear nanostructures were reported to be ‘multilayer silicene’, forming once the deposited silicon amount exceeds full coverage. However, we show that such nanostructures are also observed at low silicon coverage, demonstrating that their formation is exclusively determined by a deposition temperature higher than 460 K. On the other hand, for Si amounts higher than one monolayer the surface presents a novel c(8 × 4) reconstruction, which is responsible for the ×4 periodicity detected by LEED measurements, previously attributed to the 1.6 nm-wide nanoribbons overlayer or to ‘multilayer silicene’. Finally, the large collection of acquired data also allowed us to single out image artifacts that may explain the contradictory results appearing in previous papers.

The grating of self-assembled Si nanoribbons at the Ag(110) surface has been studied by Raman spectroscopy. The study, conducted in situ with uncapped samples, resulted in phonon frequencies in disagreement with the results of theoretical calculations reported in literature for freestanding silicene sheets and nanoribbons. These results suggest that the structure of these silicon nanoribbons is very different from the planar and lightly buckled structural models and that the influence of the substrate might be underestimated in the discussed structural models.

The growth of Mn nanostructures on a 1D grating of silicon nano-ribbons is investigated at atomic scale by means of scanning tunneling microscopy, low energy electron diffraction and core level photoelectron spectroscopy. The grating of silicon nano-ribbons represents an atomic scale template that can be used in a surface-driven route to control the combination of Si with Mn in the development of novel materials for spintronics devices. The Mn atoms show a preferential adsorption site on silicon atoms, forming one-dimensional nanostructures. They are parallel oriented with respect to the surface Si array, which probably predetermines the diffusion pathways of the Mn atoms during the process of nanostructure formation.