Electronic and Excitonic Properties of Semi-Hydrogenated Borophene Sheets

Abstract: Borophene has triggered a surge of interest due to its outstanding properties including mechanical flexibility, polymorphism, and opto-electrical anisotropy. Very recently, a novel semi-hydrogenated borophene, called $\alpha'$-4H, was synthesized in large-scale freestanding samples, which exhibits excellent air-stability and semiconducting nature. Herein, using the density functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), we investigate the electronic and excitonic optical properties of $\alpha'$-4H borophene. The DFT results reveal that by breaking the mirror symmetry and increasing the buckling height of pure $\alpha'$-borophene, hydrogenation causes an orbital hybridization and opens an indirect band gap of 1.49 eV in $\alpha'$-4H borophene. This value is corrected to be 1.98, 2.23, and 2.52 eV under the G0W0, GW0, and GW levels of theory, respectively. The optical spectrum achieved from solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation shows an optical band gap of 2.40 eV, which corresponds to a strongly bound and stable bright exciton with a binding energy of 1.18 eV. More importantly, the excitonic states are robust against tension up to 10%, where the monolayer is dynamically stable. We also design and study the bilayer $\alpha'$-4H borophene with different stackings. For the weak van der Waals interactions between the layers, the bilayer can preserve most of the structural and electronic properties of the monolayer. Our study exposes the underlying physics behind the structural, electronic, and optical properties of $\alpha'$-4H borophene and suggests it as a very promising candidate for flexible optoelectronic applications.