Giant Modulation of the Second Harmonic Generation by Magnetoelectricity in Two-Dimensional Multiferroic CuCrP₂S₆

Multiferroic materials have attracted considerable attention owing to their unique magnetoelectric or magnetooptical properties. The recent discovery of few-layer van der Waals multiferroic crystals provides a new research direction for controlling the multiferroic properties in the atomic layer limit. However, research on few-layer multiferroic crystals is limited and the effect of thickness-dependent symmetries on those properties is less explored. In this study, the symmetries and magnetoelectric responses of van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP₂S₆ are investigated by optical second harmonic generation (SHG). Structural and magnetic phase transitions are successfully probed by the temperature-dependent SHG signals, revealing significant changes by applying the magnetic field reflecting the magnetoelectric effect. Moreover, it is found that symmetries and resultant magnetoelectric responses can be modulated by the number of layers. These results offer a new principle of controlling the multiferroicity and indicate that 2D van der Waals multiferroic material is a promising building block for functional nanodevices.