TY - JOUR
T1 - Near-equilibrium growth from borophene edges on silver
AU - Zhang, Zhuhua
AU - Mannix, Andrew J.
AU - Liu, Xiaolong
AU - Hu, Zhili
AU - Guisinger, Nathan P.
AU - Hersam, Mark C.
AU - Yakobson, Boris I.
N1 - Funding Information:
Work at NUAA was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11772153) and the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures (MCMS-0417G01, NE2018002). Work at Rice University was supported by the Department of Energy BES grant DE-SC0012547. Support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-17-1-2993) and the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF DMR-1720139) is also acknowledged. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
PY - 2019/9/27
Y1 - 2019/9/27
N2 - Two-dimensional boron, borophene, was realized in recent experiments but still lacks an adequate growth theory for guiding its controlled synthesis. Combining ab initio calculations and experimental characterization, we study edges and growth kinetics of borophene on Ag(111). In equilibrium, the borophene edges are distinctly reconstructed with exceptionally low energies, in contrast to those of other two-dimensional materials. Away from equilibrium, sequential docking of boron feeding species to the reconstructed edges tends to extend the given lattice out of numerous polymorphic structures. Furthermore, each edge can grow via multiple energy pathways of atomic row assembly due to variable boron-boron coordination. These pathways reveal different degrees of anisotropic growth kinetics, shaping borophene into diverse elongated hexagonal islands in agreement with experimental observations in terms of morphology as well as edge orientation and periodicity. These results further suggest that ultrathin borophene ribbons can be grown at low temperature and low boron chemical potential.
AB - Two-dimensional boron, borophene, was realized in recent experiments but still lacks an adequate growth theory for guiding its controlled synthesis. Combining ab initio calculations and experimental characterization, we study edges and growth kinetics of borophene on Ag(111). In equilibrium, the borophene edges are distinctly reconstructed with exceptionally low energies, in contrast to those of other two-dimensional materials. Away from equilibrium, sequential docking of boron feeding species to the reconstructed edges tends to extend the given lattice out of numerous polymorphic structures. Furthermore, each edge can grow via multiple energy pathways of atomic row assembly due to variable boron-boron coordination. These pathways reveal different degrees of anisotropic growth kinetics, shaping borophene into diverse elongated hexagonal islands in agreement with experimental observations in terms of morphology as well as edge orientation and periodicity. These results further suggest that ultrathin borophene ribbons can be grown at low temperature and low boron chemical potential.
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U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.aax0246
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aax0246
M3 - Article
C2 - 31598552
AN - SCOPUS:85072792643
VL - 5
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
SN - 2375-2548
IS - 9
M1 - eaax0246
ER -