For broad nanoscale applications, it is crucial to implement more functional properties, especially those ferroic orders, into two-dimensional materials. Here GdI3 is theoretically identified as a honeycomb antiferromagnet with large 4f magnetic moment. The intercalation of metal atoms can dope electrons into Gd's 5d-orbitals, which alters its magnetic state and lead to Peierls transition. Due to the strong electron-phonon coupling, the Peierls transition induces prominent ferroelasticity, making it a multiferroic system. The strain from undirectional stretching can be self-relaxed via resizing of triple ferroelastic domains, which can protect the magnet aganist mechnical breaking in flexible applications.
@article{arxiv.2104.05945,
title = {Peierls transition driven ferroelasticity in two-dimensional $d$-$f$ hybrid magnet},
author = {Haipeng You and Yang Zhang and Jun Chen and Ning Ding and Ming An and Lin Miao and Shuai Dong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.05945},
year = {2021}
}