Regulation of conductivity and magnetism in asymmetric multipolarized InCrO3 monolayers.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials with adjustable conductivity and magnetism have attracted extensive attention due to their significant importance for high-density multistate information storage. In this work, we predicted a series of 2D InCrO3 monolayers (MLs) using first-principles. Three structures of the InCrO3 ML with different characteristics are considered: α-ML with ABCBA-type atomic sublayers, β-ML with ABCCA-type atomic sublayers, and γ-ML with ABCAB-type atomic ones. It is found that α- and γ-MLs are ferromagnetic semiconductors with opposite weak polarizations, while β-ML is a ferromagnetic semimetal with stronger polarization. Especially, the semiconducting and semimetallic states switching between the α- and β-MLs with asymmetric polarization can be achieved by tuning the applied electric field. Meanwhile, different Curie temperatures and magnetic crystal anisotropy energies (MAEs) are changed simultaneously. The property that the electronic structure, polarization and magnetism change with the structural variation of the InCrO3 ML due to the regulation of external electric field indicates that the InCrO3 MLs may have potential applications in future nanoscience and nanotechnology.