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Crystals exhibiting glass-like and low lattice thermal conductivity ($\kappa_{\rm L}$) are not only scientifically intriguing but also practically valuable in various applications, including thermal barrier coatings, thermoelectric energy conversion, and thermal management. However, such unusual $\kappa_{\rm L}$ are typically observed only in compounds containing heavy elements, with large unit cells, or at high temperatures, primarily due to significant anharmonicity. In this study, we utilize chemical bonding principles to weaken the Ag-Ag bonds within the Ag$_6$ octahedron by introducing a ligand in the bridge position. Additionally, the weak Ag-chalcogen bonds, arising from fully filled $p$-$d$ antibonding orbitals, provide an avenue to further enhance lattice anharmonicity. We propose the incorporation of a chalcogen anion as a bridge ligand to promote phonon rattling in Ag$_6$-octahedron-based compounds. Guided by this design strategy, we theoretically identified five Ag$_6$ octahedron-based compounds, $A$Ag$_3X_2$ ($A$ = Li, Na, and K; $X$ = S and Se), which are characterized by low average atomic masses and exhibit exceptionally strong four-phonon scattering. Consequently, these compounds demonstrate ultralow thermal conductivities (0.3 $\sim$ 0.6 Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$) with minimal temperature dependence (T$^{-0.1}$) across a wide temperature range. Experimental validation confirmed that the $\kappa_{\rm L}$ of NaAg$_3$S$_2$ is 0.45 Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$ within the temperature range of 200 to 550 K. Our results clearly demonstrate that weak chemical bonding plays a crucial role in designing compounds with glass-like $\kappa_{\rm L}$, highlighting the effectiveness of chemical bonding engineering in achieving desired thermal transport properties.

Tuning the properties of materials using external stimuli is crucial for developing versatile smart materials. A strong coupling among order parameters within a single-phase material constitutes a potent foundation for achieving precise property control. However, cross-coupling is pretty weak in most single materials. Leveraging first principles calculations, we demonstrate the layered mixed anion compound MoBr$_2$O$_2$ exhibits electric-field switchable spontaneous polarization and ultrastrong coupling between polar distortion and electronic structures as well as optical properties. It offers feasible avenues of achieving tunable Rashba spin-splitting, electrochromism, thermochromism, photochromism, and nonlinear optics by applying an external electric field to a single domain sample, heating, as well as intense light illumination. Additionally, it exhibits an exceptionally large photostrictive effect. These findings not only showcase the feasibility of achieving multiple order parameter coupling within a single material, but also pave the way for comprehensive applications based on property control, such as energy harvesting, information processing, and ultrafast control.

The demand for high-density storage is urgent in the current era of data explosion. Recently, several single-molecule (-atom) magnets/ferroelectrics have been reported to be promising candidates for high-density storage. As another promising candidate, single-molecule multiferroics are not only small but also possess ferroelectric and magnetic orderings, which can sometimes be strongly coupled and used as data storages to realize the combination of electric writing and magnetic reading. However, they have been rarely proposed, and never been experimentally reported. Here, by building Hamiltonian models, we propose a new model of single-molecule multiferroic in which electric dipoles and magnetic moments are parallel and can rotate with the rotation of the single molecule. Furthermore, with performing spin-lattice dynamics simulations, we reveal the conditions (e.g., large enough single-ion anisotropy and appropriate electric field) under which the new single-molecule multiferroic can arise. Based on this model, as well as first-principles calculations, a realistic example Co(NH3)4N@SWCNT is constructed and numerically confirmed to demonstrate the feasibility of the new single-molecule multiferroic model. Our work not only sheds light on the discovery of single-molecule multiferroics but also provides a new guideline to design multifunctional materials for ultimate memory devices.

Organic-inorganic multiferroics are promising for the next generation of electronic devices. To date, dozens of organic-inorganic multiferroics have been reported; however, most of them show magnetic Curie temperature much lower than room temperature, which drastically hampers their application. Here, by performing first-principle calculations and building effective model Hamiltonians, we reveal a molecular orbital-mediated magnetic coupling mechanism in two-dimensional Cr(pyz)2 (pyz=pyrazine), and the role that the valence state of the molecule plays in determining the magnetic coupling type between metal ions. Based on these, we demonstrate that a two-dimensional organic-inorganic room-temperature multiferroic, Cr(h-fpyz)2 (h-fpyz= half-fluoropyrazine), can be rationally designed by introducing ferroelectricity in Cr(pyz)2 while keeping the valence state of the molecule unchanged. Our work not only reveals the origin of magnetic coupling in 2D organic-inorganic systems, but also provides a way to design room temperature multiferroic materials rationally.

Based on a simple tight-binding model, we propose a general theory of light-induced magnetic phase transition (MPT) in antiferromagnets based on the general conclusion that the bandgap of antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase is usually larger than that of ferromagnetic (FM) one in a given system. Light-induced electronic excitation prefers to stabilize the FM state over the AFM one, and once the critical photocarrier concentration ({\alpha}_c) is reached, an MPT from AFM phase to FM phase takes place. This theory has been confirmed by performing first-principles calculations on a series of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) antiferromagnets and a linear relationship between {\alpha}_c and the intrinsic material parameters is obtained. Importantly, our conclusion is still valid even considering the strong exciton effects during photoexcitation. Our general theory provides new ideas to realize reversible read-write operations for future memory devices., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures

The coupling of optical and electronic degrees of freedom together with quantum confinement in low-dimensional electron systems is particularly interesting for achieving exotic functionalities in strongly correlated oxide electronics. Recently, high room-temperature mobility has been achieved for a large bandgap transparent oxide - BaSnO$_3$ upon extrinsic La or Sb doping, which has excited significant research attention. In this work, we report the observation of room-temperature ferromagnetism in BaSnO$_3$ thin films and the realization of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) on the surface of transparent BaSnO$_3$ via oxygen vacancy creation, which exhibits a high carrier density of $\sim 7.72*10^{14} /{\rm cm}^2$ and a high room-temperature mobility of ~18 cm$^2$/V/s. Such a 2DEG is rather sensitive to strain and a less than 0.1% in-plane biaxial compressive strain leads to a giant resistance enhancement of 350% (more than 540 kOhm/Square) at room temperature. Thus, this work creates a new path to exploring the physics of low-dimensional oxide electronics and devices applicable at room temperature., Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures