Expérimental
2D materials are composed by single or few atomic layers and often display different physical properties with respect their bulk counterpart. Their properties can be tuned by strain, by changing the number of atomic layers or coupling them to other 2D materials. Two are the main objectives that drive this scientific field: (1) the fabrication and characterization of novel 2D materials which show novel properties and (2) the vertical stacking of different 2D crystals to form the so-called van der Walls heterostructures with the desired properties. Among the different 2D materails, antimonene is quite unique due to its strong spin-orbit interaction, which is one of the key ingredient of topological order of matter. In fact, antimonene become a 2D topological insulator when subjected to tensile strain. Strained antimonene develops Dirac cones in its electronic dispersion. We recently produced a strained antimonene layer showing a spin-splitted Dirac Cone due to spin-orbit interaction. The next step of our study will consist in coupling the electronic properties of antimonene to the one of a graphene layer and address the mutual interaction of Dirac electrons in the heterostructure. The internship will be focused on the optimization of the growth technique, in ultra-high vacuum conditions, and the in-situ characterization by angle resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy.