Structure of χ3-Borophene Studied by Total-Reflection High-Energy Positron Diffraction (TRHEPD)

Yuki Tsujikawa; Makoto Shoji; Masashi Hamada; Tomoya Takeda; Izumi Mochizuki; Toshio Hyodo; Iwao Matsuda; Akari Takayama

doi:10.3390/molecules27134219

Structure of χ₃-Borophene Studied by Total-Reflection High-Energy Positron Diffraction (TRHEPD)

Molecules. 2022 Jun 30;27(13):4219. doi: 10.3390/molecules27134219.

Authors

Yuki Tsujikawa¹, Makoto Shoji², Masashi Hamada², Tomoya Takeda², Izumi Mochizuki³, Toshio Hyodo³, Iwao Matsuda¹, Akari Takayama²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8581, Japan.
² Department of Physics and Applied Physics, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan.
³ Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan.

Abstract

We have investigated the structure of χ₃-borophene on Ag(111), a monolayer material of boron atoms, via total-reflection high-energy positron diffraction (TRHEPD). By comparing the experimental rocking-curves with ones for several structures calculated by using dynamical diffraction theory, we confirmed that the χ₃-borophene layer has a flat structure. The distance from the topmost layer of the metal crystal is 2.4 Å, which is consistent with results reported by X-ray standing wave-excited X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We also demonstrated that the in-plane structure of χ₃-borophene is compatible with the theoretical predictions. These structural properties indicate that χ₃-borophene belongs to a group of epitaxial monolayer sheets, such as graphene, which have weak interactions with the substrates.

Keywords: TRHEPD; borophene; diffraction; monolayer material.

Abstract

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