Discovery of Clustered-P1 Borophene and Its Application as the Lightest High-Performance Transistor

Abstract

The two-dimensional network of boron atoms (borophene) has attracted attention for its ultralow molar mass and remarkable polymorphism. Synthesized polymorphs of borophene (striped, β12, χ3, and honeycomb), so far, are all found to be metallic. Employing a genetic algorithm-based structure searching technique, here we discover an allotrope, clustered-P1, which is located very close to the global energy minimum. Clustered-P1 exhibits a bulk silicon-like band gap (1.08 eV) with symmetric effective masses (∼0.2 m0) for electrons and holes along the transport direction. Phonon dispersion and beyond room-temperature ab initio molecular dynamics studies further confirm its excellent dynamic and structural stability. Since two-dimensional semiconductors are promising silicon alternatives for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology extension, we further investigate the characteristics of clustered-P1-based transistors using self-consistent quantum transport models for channel lengths of 10-3 nm. The performance of these devices has been found to be balanced for p- and n-type transistors and meets the requirements of the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS). Our study may aid in the experimental realization of the lightest high-performance transistor.