Enhancement of Curie Temperature under Built-in Electric Field in Multi-Functional Janus Vanadium Dichalcogenides

Functionalized two-dimensional materials with multiferroicity are highly desired to be next-generation electronic devices. Here we theoretically predict a family of Janus vanadium dichalcogenides VXX' (X/X' = S, Se, Te) monolayers with multiferroic properties, combing ferromagnetism, ferroelasticity and piezoelectricity. Due to the unpaired electrons on the V atom, the Janus VXX' monolayers have intrinsic long-range ferromagnetic orders. Particularly, the Curie temperature of 1T-VSeTe monolayer is up to 100 K, which is greatly higher than 2D 1T-VSe_2 and 1T-VTe_2. Furthermore, the six Janus VXX' monolayers have similar crater-like ferroelastic switching curves. Compared to black phosphorus, 2H-VSSe monolayer has the similar ferroelastic switching signal and 4 times lower energy barrier. In addition, the out-of-plane piezoelectricity induced by the structure asymmetry in the vertical direction gives the 2H-VXX' monolayers the potential to be piezoelectric materials. It is found that a built-in electric field in the vertical direction due to the different electronegativity values of chalcogen atoms induces the changes of electronic structures, which leads to the appearance of three different types of band gaps in the three H-phase structures. Recently, the experimental growth of the Janus MoSSe monolayers and the electrochemical exfoliation of ferromagnetic monolayered VSe_2 make the Janus VXX' monolayers possibly fabricated in experiments.