Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Few-Layer β12-Borophane on Copper Foils toward Broadband Photodetection

Borophene has drawn tremendous attention in the past decade for a wide range of potential applications owing to its unique structural, optical, and electronic properties. However, applications of borophene toward next-generation nanodevices are mostly theoretical predictions, while experimental realization is still lacking due to rapid oxidation of intrinsic borophene in an air environment. Here, we have successfully prepared structurally stable and transferrable few-layer β12-borophane on copper foils by a typical two-zone chemical vapor deposition method, where bis(triphenylphosphine)copper tetrahydroborate was used as the boron source in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere to stabilize its structure through hydrogenation. The crystal structure of the as-prepared β12-borophane is in good agreement with previous reports. A fabricated photodetector based on β12-borophane–silicon (n-type) Schottky junction shows good photoelectric responses to light excitations in a wide wavelength range from 365 to 850 nm. Especially, the photodetector exhibits a good photoresponsivity of around 0.48 A W–1, a high specific detectivity of 4.39 × 1011 jones, a high external quantum efficiency of 162%, and short response and recovery times of 115 and 121 ms under an ultraviolet light with the wavelength of 365 nm at a reverse bias of 5 V. The results show great potential applications of borophane in next-generation nanophotonic and nanoelectronic devices.