Anisotropic transport response of borophene to hydrostatic strain

Recently, borophene was proposed as a promising material for emerging stretchable and foldable electronics due to its mechanically flexible nature. Here, we conduct ballistic conductance calculations to study the effect of hydrostatic strain on the electronic transport properties of freestanding borophene. Because of its rippled structure, borophene exhibits strongly anisotropic electrical conductivity with current density ratio being more than twice larger along the two planar directions. Moreover, the system shows an anisotropic response to the external strain. For example, tensile strain decreases the conductance along the uncorrugated direction, while it increases the electronic transport significantly along the corrugated direction. Compressive strain also has an opposite effect on the conductance along the two different planar directions. These findings can be useful for practical applications of borophene in stretchable electronics.