A research team from Wuhan University (WHU), led by Professors Zhang Chendong and He Jun, in collaboration with Renmin University of China, has made a significant breakthrough in studying multiferroicity at the single-atom scale. Their findings, Evidences of Ferroelectricity in an Antiferromagnetic Vanadium Trichloride Monolayer, have been published in Science Advances.  

Morphology and atomic structure of ML-VCl3 on a NbSe2 substrate.

Using ultra-high vacuum epitaxy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and other techniques, the team investigated the heterostructure of monolayer VCl₃ and NbSe₂. They confirmed the presence of switchable in-plane ferroelectricity in monolayer VCl₃, which coexists with a canted double-stripe antiferromagnetic ground state. Further studies revealed that Cl-Se interactions break the symmetry of VCl₃, enabling indirect coupling between spin order and polarization order.

This study provides insights into single-atom-scale multiferroic materials and opens up new avenues for polarization control via interface engineering, with potential applications in next-generation multifunctional devices.  

Link to paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado6538