Discovery of 2D Anisotropic Dirac Cones

Abstract

2D anisotropic Dirac cones are observed in χ₃ borophene, a monolayer boron sheet, using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The Dirac cones are centered at the X and X' points. The data also reveal that the hybridization between borophene and Ag(111) is very weak, which explains the preservation of the Dirac cones. As χ₃ borophene has been predicated to be a superconductor, the results may stimulate further research interest in the novel physics of borophene, such as the interplay between Cooper pairs and the massless Dirac fermions.

Keywords: Dirac cone; angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy; anisotropic; borophene; first-principles calculations.