  Absence of the Dirac cone due to a strong band hybridization is revealed to
be a common feature for epitaxial silicene on metal substrates according to our
first-principles calculations for silicene on Ir, Cu, Mg, Au, Pt, Al, and Ag
substrates. The destroyed Dirac cone of silicene, however, can be effectively
restored with linear or parabolic dispersion by intercalating alkali metal
atoms between silicene and the metal substrates, offering an opportunity to
study the intriguing properties of silicene without further transfer of
silicene from the metal substrates.
