2018/07/07 by Jingshan Qi, Hua Wang, Xiaofang Chen +1 · 183 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #Condensed matter physics #Dielectric #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Ferroelectricity #Ferromagnetism #Materials science #Multiferroics #Multiferroics and related materials #Optoelectronics #Physics #Semiconductor #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.5038037
published in Applied Physics Letters 113(4) (American Institute of Physics) · 9 pages, 4 figures. The following article has been accepted by Applied Physics Letters. After it is published, it will be found at http://apl.aip.org
arxiv created 2018/07/07 · openalex created_date 2018/07/19 · openalex publication_date 2018/07/23 · arxiv updated 2018/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Low-dimensional multiferroicity, though highly scarce in nature, has attracted great attention due to both fundamental and technological interests. Using first-principles density functional theory, we show that ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity can coexist in monolayer transition metal phosphorus chalcogenides (TMPCs)-CuMP2X6 (M = Cr, V; X = S, Se). These van der Waals layered materials represent a class of 2D multiferroic semiconductors that simultaneously possess ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders. In these monolayer materials, Cu atoms spontaneously move away from the center atomic plane, giving rise to nontrivial electric dipole moment along the plane normal. In addition, their ferromagnetism originates from indirect exchange interaction between Cr/V atoms, and their out-of-plane ferroelectricity suggests the possibility of controlling electric polarization by external vertical electric field. Monolayer semiconducting TMPCs thus provide a solid-state 2D materials platform for realizing 2D nanoscale switches and memory devices patterned with top and bottom electrodes.