Sublimation of silicene and thin silicon films: a view from molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

A molecular dynamics simulation of sublimation of silicene and silicon films of different thikness is performed. It is shown that thiner films sublimate at lower temperatures. The sublimation temperature comes to a saturated value of $T=1725$ K at the films thiker than $16$ atomc layers. These results are consistent with the surface mediated collaps of the crystal structure. At the same time this mechanism is different from the crystal structure collapse of graphite and graphene.