Semiconducting triferroic multiferroics in van der Waals bilayer lattice

Triferroic multiferroicity, with ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and ferroelasticity coexisting in a single phase, is an intriguing phenomenon with promising device applications. Despite their great fundamental and technological importance, triferroic multiferroics remain substantially unexplored---especially those of semiconducting character. This computational study predicts semiconducting triferroic multiferroicity in the layered van der Waals material T^'-TiBr₂, with ferroelastic control of magnetization orientation and ferroelectric control of the absolute values of spin-polarization-density distributions, which is quite exciting.