  Two dimensional (2D) layered materials have recently gained renewed interest
due to their exotic electronic properties along with high specific surface
area. The prospects of exploiting these properties in sensing, catalysis,
energy storage, protective coatings and electrochromism have witnessed a
paradigm shift towards the exploration of these sophisticated 2D materials. The
exemplary performance of graphene (1) which is among the first of these
elemental 2D materials have initiated a runaway effect in the pursuit of
studying alternative 2D materials. Even though graphene has tunable exotic
electronic properties (2), the spin-orbit (SO) coupling is weak (3) limiting
its applications as spin filters, topological insulators etc. Topological
insulators by their very nature force the electrons to travel on the surface at
very high speeds thereby finding useful applications in electronic and photonic
devices. Exploration of group IV elements using first principles calculations
have revealed that the SO coupling increases as the atomic weight of the basis
atoms in the honeycomb lattice (4). Tin is one of the heaviest elements in this
series having strong spin-orbit coupling making it a promising applicant for
room temperature topological insulator. Thus there is an urgent need to
discover novel 2D materials in the post graphene age to overcome its
deficiencies. We have synthesized and investigated the optical transitions in
2D material referred to as few-layer stanene (FLS). These are analogous to
few-layer graphene and can be visualized by replacing carbon atoms by tin on a
graphene lattice. We have been able to synthesize from mono to few atomic
layers of free standing stanene and characterize them optically using UV-Vis
absorption, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. First principles
calculations have been performed to interpret experimental results.
