Discovery of a layered multiferroic compound Cu 1− x Mn 1+ y SiTe 3 with strong magnetoelectric coupling

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp9379
• Publication Date: 2025-01-01T19:03:34Z
• Authors: Chandan De; Yu Liu; Sai Venkata Gayat...; Boyang Zheng; Kyle P. Kelley; Sankalpa Hazra; Jingyang He; Sylwia Pawledzio; Subin Mali; Samaresh Guchhait; Suguru Yoshida; Yingdong Guan; Seng Huat Lee; Milos Sretenovic; Xianglin Ke; Le Wang; Mark H. Engelhard; Yingge Du; Weiwei Xie; Xiaoping Wang; Vincent H. Crespi; Nasim Alem; Venkatraman Gopalan; Qiang Zhang; Zhiqiang Mao
• Keywords: Monoclinic crystal system; Magnetism

Multiferroic materials host both ferroelectricity and magnetism, offering potential for magnetic memory spin transistor applications. Here, we report a multiferroic chalcogenide semiconductor Cu 1−x Mn 1+y SiTe 3 (0.04 ≤ x 0.26; 0.03 y 0.15), which crystallizes in polar monoclinic structure ( Pm space group). It exhibits canted antiferromagnetic state below 35 kelvin, with hysteresis remanent magnetization under 15 kelvin. We demonstrate multiferroicity strong magnetoelectric coupling through magnetodielectric magnetocurrent measurements. At 10 the magnetically induced electric polarization reaches ~0.8 microcoulombs per square centimeter, comparable to highest value oxide multiferroics. also observe possible room-temperature ferroelectricity. Given that is very rare among transition metal chalcogenides, our finding sets up unique platform designing chalcogenides.