In
this work, we report our results on the geometric and electronic
properties of hybrid graphite-like structure made up of silicene and
boron nitride (BN) layers. We predict from our calculations that this
hybrid bulk system, with alternate layers of honeycomb silicene and BN,
possesses physical properties similar to those of bulk graphite. We
observe that there exists a weak van der Waals interaction between the
layers of this hybrid system in contrast to the strong inter-layer
covalent bonds present in multilayers of silicene. Furthermore, our
results for the electronic band structure and the density of states show
that it is a semi-metal and the dispersion around the Fermi level (EF) is parabolic in nature and thus the charge carriers in this system behave as nearly-free-particle-like.
These results indicate that the electronic properties of the hybrid
bulk system resemble closely those of bulk graphite. Around EF
the electronic band structures have contributions only from silicene
layers and the BN layer acts only as a buffer layer in this hybrid
system since it does not contribute to the electronic properties near EF. In case of bi-layers of silicene with a single BN layer kept in-between, we observe a linear dispersion around EF
similar to that of graphene. However, the characteristic linear
dispersion becomes parabola-like when the system is subjected to a
compression along the transverse direction. Our present calculations
show that the hybrid system based on silicon and BN can be a possible
candidate for two-dimensional layered system, akin to graphite and
multi-layers of graphene.