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Hexagonal Si2Te2 monolayers (ML-Si2Te2) were predicted to showstrain-dependent band-crossover between semiconducting and room-temperaturequantum spin Hall phases. However, investigations on this artificialtwo-dimensional (2D) material have mainly been restricted to theoreticalcalculations because its bulk counterpart does not exist naturally. Here, wereport on the successful epitaxial growth of ML-Si2Te2 films on Sb2Te3 thinfilm substrates. High-quality (1*1) ML-Si2Te2 films with a coverage as high as95% were obtained as revealed by scanning tunneling microscopy. X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy confirms the absence of intermixing between Si2Te2and Sb2Te3 at the interface. By combining scanning tunneling spectroscopy withdensity functional theory calculations, we demonstrate the semiconducting bandstructure of ML-Si2Te2 on Sb2Te3. Furthermore, it is theoretically predictedthat the system can be driven into the nontrivial phase via reducing the strainby 4.4% using strain engineering. Our results pave the way for in-depthinvestigations on this 2D topological insulator candidate.

Epitaxial growth of a two-dimensional topological insulator candidate: monolayer Si2Te2