The nucleation and growth of borophene on the Ag (111) surface

• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-016-1148-0
• Publication Date: 2016-06-17T16:15:41Z
• Authors: Shaogang Xu; Yujun Zhao; Jihai Liao; Xiaobao Yang; Hu Xu
• Keywords: Borophene; Lattice (music); Hexagonal Lattice

17 pages, 10 figures<br/>Boron (B) sheet has been intently studied and various candidates with vacancies have been proposed by theoretical investigations, including the possible growth on metal surface. However, a recent experiment (Science 350, 1513, 2015) reported that the sheet formed on the Ag(111) surface was a buckled triangular lattice without vacancy. Our calculations combined with High-Throughput screening and the first-principles method demonstrate a novel growth mechanism of boron sheet from clusters, ribbons, to monolayers, where the B-Ag interaction is dominant in the nucleation of boron nanostructures. We have found that the simulated STM image of the sheet with 1/6 vacancies in a stripe pattern is in better agreement with the experimental observation, which is energetically favored during the nucleation and growth.<br/>