Autferroics, recently proposed as a sister branch of multiferroics, exhibit strong intrinsic magnetoelectricity, but ferroelectricity and magnetism are mutually exclusive rather than coexisting. Here, a general model is considered based on the Landau theory, to clarify the distinction between multi and autferroics by qualitative change-rotation in Landau free energy landscape and in particular phase mapping. The TiGeSe3 exemplifies a factual material, whose first-principles computed Landau coefficients predict its autferroicity. Our investigations pave the way for an alternative avenue in the pursuit of intrinsically strong magnetoelectrics.
@article{arxiv.2505.01792,
title = {Landau theory description of autferroicity},
author = {Jun-Jie Zhang and Boris I. Yakobson and Shuai Dong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.01792},
year = {2025}
}