# Unary encoded language set

While reading the book theory of computation by Michael Sipser, I did not understand the language given below. I will explain the problem first

$$L = \{1^n :n \in \mathbb{Z}\}$$

Where $\mathbb{Z}$ is a set of integers.

Question :I am not able to understand the string that belong to the given set will look like.

I know if input alphabet is $\{0,1\}^*$ then string 0101 (5 in decimal).

Forget about strings meaning anything. For any symbol $a$ and natural number $n$, $a^n$ is the string made from $n$ copies of $a$. So $a^1=a$, $a^2=aa$, $a^5=aaaaa$ and $a^0$ is the empty string, usually written as $\varepsilon$ or $\lambda$.
The set $\{1^n\mid n\in\mathbb{Z}\}$ isn't well-defined (did Sipser really write that?), since $-1\in\mathbb{Z}$ but $1^{-1}$ doesn't make sense: what would $-1$ copies of the symbol $1$ look like?
However, the set $\{1^n\mid n\in\mathbb{N}\}$ is just $\{1^0, 1^1, 1^2, 1^3, \dots\}$, i.e., $\{\varepsilon, 1, 11, 111, \dots\}$ (I'm considering zero to be a natural number; delete $\varepsilon$ if you think that one is the first natural number). Now, strings such as $111$ can be interpreted as numbers written out in some base (unary, binary, decimal, whatever). But the definition is just giving you a set of strings.
I think you need to understand the unary encoding. The set $$L =\{1^n:n \in \mathbb{Z}\}$$