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Reply to: Dilemma in optical identification of single-layer multiferroics

Nature volume 619, pages E44–E46 (2023)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 19 July 2023

replying to: Y. Jiang et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06107-3 (2023)

We thank Jiang et al. for their Comment titled ‘Dilemma in optical identificationof single-layer multiferroics’1. The main concern raised by the authors is that the second-harmonic generation (SHG) and linear dichroism (LD) observed in single-layer NiI2 do not provide sufficient evidence that the system is polar2. The authors provide examples of other centrosymmetric magnetic materials (bilayer CrI3 and FePS3) where SHG and LD signatures are present. In addition, the authors present circular and linear dichroism measurements that they interpret as evidence of magnetic domains in NiI2, further claiming that the equivalence of the domain maps is an indication that LD is sensitive to magnetic domains.

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Fig. 1: Kerr rotation and dichroism measurements of bulk NiI2.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Jiang, Y. et al. Dilemma in optical identification of single-layer multiferroics. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06107-3 (2023).

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Acknowledgements

Q.S., C.A.O. and R.C. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, BES under award number DE-SC0019126 (materials synthesis and characterization), from the National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR-1751739 (optical measurements) and from the STC Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, NSF grant no. DMR-1231319 (device fabrication). E.E., B.I. and N.G. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, BES DMSE (data taking and analysis) and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative grant GBMF9459 (instrumentation). J.K. and A.S.B. acknowledge NSF grant no. DMR-1904716 and the ASU research computing centre for HPC resources. D.A. and S.P. acknowledge support by the Nanoscience Foundries and Fine Analysis (NFFA-MIUR Italy) project. P.B. and S.P. acknowledge financial support from the Italian Ministry for Research and Education through PRIN-2017 projects ‘Tuning and understanding Quantum phases in 2D materials—Quantum 2D’ (IT-MIUR grant no. 2017Z8TS5B) and ‘TWEET: Towards Ferroelectricity in two dimensions’ (IT-MIUR grant no. 2017YCTB59), respectively. D.A., P.B. and S.P. also acknowledge high-performance computing systems operated by CINECA (IsC722DFmF, IsC80-Em2DvdWd, IsC88-FeCoSMO and IsB21-IRVISH projects) and computing resources at the Pharmacy Department, University of Chieti-Pescara, and thank L. Storchi for technical support.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qian Song, Connor A. Occhialini, Emre Ergeçen, Batyr Ilyas

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Qian Song, Connor A. Occhialini, Emre Ergeçen, Batyr Ilyas, Nuh Gedik & Riccardo Comin

  2. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Qian Song

  3. Université de Liège, and Nanomat/Q-mat/CESAM, Liège, Belgium

    Danila Amoroso

  4. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNR-SPIN, Area della Ricerca di Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Paolo Barone

  5. Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jesse Kapeghian & Antia S. Botana

  6. Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe

  7. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takashi Taniguchi

  8. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNR-SPIN, c/o Università degli Studi ‘G. D’Annunzio’, Chieti, Italy

    Silvia Picozzi

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  1. Qian Song
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Contributions

Q.S. and R.C. conceived the project. Q.S. synthesized the NiI2 samples. Q.S. and C.A.O. performed Raman and birefringence measurements, supervised by R.C. E.E. and B.I. performed SHG measurements, supervised by N.G. T.T. and K.W. provided and characterized bulk hexagonal boron nitride crystals. D.A., A.S.B. and J.K. performed first-principles calculations. P.B. and D.A. performed Monte Carlo simulations, and discussed the results with S.P. All authors contributed to the writing of the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Riccardo Comin.

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Song, Q., Occhialini, C.A., Ergeçen, E. et al. Reply to: Dilemma in optical identification of single-layer multiferroics. Nature 619, E44–E46 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06108-2

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