Semimetallic Two-Dimensional Boron Allotrope with Massless Dirac Fermions

Theoretical evidence of the existence of 12 inequivalent Dirac cones at the vicinity of the Fermi energy in monolayered ZrB$_2$ is presented. Two-dimensional ZrB$_2$ is a mechanically stable d- and p-orbital compound exhibiting a unique electronic structure with two Dirac cones out of high-symmetry points in the irreducible Brillouin zone with a small electron-pocket compensation. First-principles calculations demonstrate that while one of the cones is insensitive to lattice ...

We predict by first principles calculations that the recently prepared borophene is a pristine two-dimensional (2D) monolayer superconductor, in which the superconductivity can be significantly enhanced by strain and charge carrier doping. The intrinsic metallic ground state with high density of states at Fermi energy and strong Fermi surface nesting lead to sizeable electron-phonon coupling, making the freestanding borophene superconduct with $T_c$ close to 19.0 K. The tensi...

Monolayer AlB$_2$ is composed of two atomic layers: honeycomb borophene and triangular aluminum. In contrast with the bulk phase, monolayer AlB$_2$ is predicted to be a superconductor with a high critical temperature. Here, we demonstrate that monolayer AlB$_2$ can be synthesized on Al(111) via molecular beam epitaxy. Our theoretical calculations revealed that the monolayer AlB$_2$ hosts several Dirac cones along the $\Gamma$--M and $\Gamma$--K directions; these Dirac cones a...

Topological metal/semimetals (TMs) have emerged as a new frontier in the field of quantum materials. A few two-dimensional (2D) boron sheets have been suggested as Dirac materials, however, to date TMs made of three-dimensional (3D) boron structures have not been found. Herein, by means of systematic first principles computations, we discovered that a rather stable 3D boron allotrope, namely 3D-alpha' boron, is a nodal-chain semimetal. In the momentum space, six nodal lines a...

A novel crystalline structure of hybrid monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (BN) and graphene is predicted by means of the first-principles calculations. This material can be derived via boron or nitrogen atoms substituted by carbon atoms evenly in the graphitic BN with vacancies. The corresponding structure is constructed from a BN hexagonal ring linking an additional carbon atom. The unit cell is composed of 7 atoms, 3 of which are boron atoms, 3 are nitrogen atoms, and one i...

Analysis of the electronic structure of an ordinary two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) under an appropriate external periodic potential of hexagonal symmetry reveals that massless Dirac fermions are generated near the corners of the supercell Brillouin zone. The required potential parameters are found to be achievable under or close to laboratory conditions. Moreover, the group velocity is tunable by changing either the effective mass of the 2DEG or the lattice parameter of ...

"What is the difference between space and time?" is an ancient question that remains a matter of intense debate. In Newtonian mechanics time is absolute, while in Einstein's theory of relativity time and space combine into Minkowski spacetime. Here, we firstly propose Minkowski fermions in 2+1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime which have two space-like and one time-like momentum axes. These quasiparticles can be further classified as Klein-Gordon fermions and Dirac-Minkowski fe...

New crystal structures of fully hydrogenated borophene (borophane) have been predicted by first principles calculation. Comparing with the chair-like borophane (C-boropane) that has been reported in literature, we obtained four new borophane conformers with much lower total-energy. The most stable one, washboard-like borophane (W-borophane), has energy about 113.41 meV/atom lower than C-borophane. In order to explain the relative stability of different borophane conformers, t...

Two-dimensional (2D) materials, especially their most prominent member, graphene, have greatly influenced many scientific areas. Moreover, they have become a base for investigating the relativistic properties of condensed matter within the emerging field of Dirac physics. This has ignited an intense search for new materials where charge carriers behave as massless or massive Dirac fermions. Here, we theoretically show the existence of Dirac electrons in a series of 2D transit...

The effect of external static charging on borophenes - 2D boron crystals - is investigated by using first principles calculations. The influence of the excess negative charge on the stability of the 2D structures is examined using a very simple analysis of decomposition of the binding energy of a given boron layer into contributions coming from boron atoms that have different coordination numbers. This analysis is important to understand how the local neighbourhood of an atom...