All-boron planar clusters with electric dipole moment

Abstract

The electric dipole moment, one of the key ground-state parameters of bound atomic systems, is calculated for planar boron clusters B_n containing n = 1–20 atoms. It is found that only rotationally asymmetric clusters – B₅, B₈, B₁₁, B₁₄ and B₁₇ – have non-zero dipole moments. Their order of magnitude indicates an average charge transfer between the constituent atoms that is smaller than the electron charge. At the same time, the electric dipole moments of small boron clusters are capable of influencing the growth kinetics of borophenes and other boron-rich nanostructures.