How does the electric current propagate through the fully-hydrogenated borophene?

TL;DR

This study investigates the electronic transport properties of fully-hydrogenated borophene (borophane), revealing its anisotropic conductivity and potential for nano-switch applications due to its combined metallic and semiconducting behaviors.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of borophane's transport anisotropy and demonstrates its potential as a stable, high ON/OFF ratio nano-switching material.

Findings

Borophane exhibits perfect electrical transport anisotropy.

Along the linear direction, borophane shows metallic and linear I-V behavior.

Perpendicular direction exhibits semiconductor-like behavior with suppressed electron transmission.

Abstract

We study the electronic transport properties of two-dimensional (2D) fully-hydrogenated borophene (namely, borophane), using the density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function approaches. Borophane shows a perfect electrical transport anisotropy and is promising for applications. Along the peak- or equivalently the valley-parallel direction, the 2D borophane exhibits a metallic characteristic and its current-voltage (I-V) curve shows a linear behavior, corresponding to the ON state in borophane-based nano-switch. In this case, electrons mainly propagate via the B-B bonds along the linear boron chains. In contrast, the electron transmission is almost forbidden along the perpendicular buckled direction (i.e., the OFF state), due to its semi-conductor property. Our work demonstrates that 2D borophane could combine the metal and semiconductor features and can be a promising candidate of nano-switching materials with stable structure and high ON/OFF ratio.