Tuning the electronic transport anisotropy in borophene via oxidation strategy

Monolayer borophene, a novel kind of two-dimensional (2D) crystal, has been receiving intensive attention owing to its atomic thickness and metallic characteristics. Rational tuning the anisotropic electronic transport properties is essential to the application of monolayer borophene in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Herein, we developed an oxidation strategy to tune the anisotropic transport properties of borophene by changing O-defect coverage, using density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism. It was found that for monolayer borophene, the preferable current flowing direction between armchair and zigzag could be reversed by modulating the surface O-defect coverage between 0 and 100%. The tunable anisotropic transport properties of oxidized borophene could be attributed to the interplay among several factors, including the surface charge transfer between O-defects and borophene layer, the scattering effects related to the coverage and orientation of O-B-O interfaces, and the additional transport channels through O-defects. Our work unveils the great potential of oxidization strategy in tuning the anisotropic electronic transport properties of monolayer borophene and is of significance to its application in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic nanodevices.