title: A new class of boron nanotube.
abstract: The configurations, stability and electronic structures of a new class of boron sheet and related boron nanotubes are predicted within the framework of density functional theory. This boron sheet is sparser than those of recent proposals. Our theoretic results show that the stable boron sheet remains flat and is metallic. There are bands similar to the pi-bands in graphite near the Fermi level. Stable nanotubes with various diameters and chiral vectors can be rolled from the sheet. Within our study, only the thin (8, 0) nanotube with a band gap of 0.44 eV is semiconducting, while all the other thicker boron nanotubes are metallic, independent of their chirality. It indicates the possibility, in the design of nanodevices, to control the electronic transport properties of the boron nanotube through the diameter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Hebei Advanced Thin Film Laboratory, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050016, Hebei, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: You-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Li