Unveiling the Electric-Current-Limiting and Photodetection Effect in Two-Dimensional Hydrogenated Borophene

The electronic transport and photoelectric properties of hydrogenated borophene B4H4, which were realized in a recent experiment by Nishino, et al. [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 13761 (2017)] are systematically investigated using the density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's function methods. We find that B4H4 exhibits a perfect current-limiting effect and has high (along the zigzag direction) and low (along the armchair one) optional levels due to its strong electrical anisotropy. Moreover, B4H4 can generate sizable photocurrents under illumination, with strong photoelectronic response to blue or green light along the zigzag or armchair direction. Our work demonstrates that B4H4 is promising for the applications of current limiter and photodetectors.