2D Dirac materials supported by nonmetallic substrates are of particular interest due to their significance for the realization of the quantum spin Hall effect and their application in field-effect transistors. Here, monolayer germanene is successfully fabricated on semiconducting germanium film with the support of a Ag(111) substrate. Its linear-like energy-momentum dispersion and large Fermi velocity are derived from the pronounced quasiparticle interference patterns in a √3 × √3 superstructure. In addition to Dirac fermion characteristics, the theoretical simulations reveal that the energy gap opens at the Brillouin zone center of the √3 × √3 restructured germanene, which is evoked by the symmetry-breaking perturbation potential. These results demonstrate that the germanium nanosheets with √3 × √3 germanene can be an ideal platform for fundamental research and for the realization of high-speed and low-energy-consumption field-effect transistors.
Keywords: 2D materials; Dirac fermions; field‐effect transistors; germanene; scanning tunneling microscopy; transmission electron microscopy.