Conducting Boron Sheets Formed by the Reconstruction of the alpha-Boron (111) Surface

Systematic ab initio structure prediction was applied for the first time to predict low energy surface reconstructions by employing the minima hopping method on the alpha-boron (111) surface. Novel reconstruction geometries were identified and carefully characterized in terms of structural and electronic properties. Our calculations predict the formation of a planar, monolayer sheet at the surface, which is responsible for conductive surface states. Furthermore, the isolated boron sheet is shown to be the ground state 2D structure in vacuum at a hole density of eta = 1/5 and is therefore a potential candidate as a precursor for boron nanostructures.