We present a detailed theoretical study of the Drude weight and optical conductivity of 8-$Pmmn$ borophene having tilted anisotropic Dirac cones. We provide exact analytical expressions of $xx$ and $yy$ components of the Drude weight as well as maximum optical conductivity. We also obtain exact analytical expressions of the minimum energy (${\epsilon }_1$) required to trigger the optical transitions and energy (${\epsilon }_2$) needed to attain maximum optical conductivity. We find that the Drude weight and optical conductivity are highly anisotropic as a consequence of the anisotropic Dirac cone. The optical conductivities have a nonmonotonic behavior with photon energy in the regime between ${\epsilon }_1$ and ${\epsilon }_2$, as a result of the tilted parameter $v_t$. The tilted parameter can be extracted by knowing ${\epsilon }_1$ and ${\epsilon }_2$ from optical measurements. The maximum values of the components of the optical conductivity do not depend on the carrier density and the tilted parameter. The product of the maximum values of the anisotropic conductivities has the universal value ${(e^2/4\hslash )}^2$. The tilted anisotropic Dirac cones in 8-$Pmmn$ borophene can be realized by the optical conductivity measurement.

• Received 16 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.155418