Fig. 4: The evolution of physical quantities in the switching pathway.

a The energy barrier of the ferroelectric switching pathway of CrGe₂Se₃ from state + P to state − P by ssNEB method and linearly changing the polarization. The blue line is the fitting by Eq. (2). b The energy difference between E_P,M and E_P. The blue line is the fitting by Eq. (3). c Electrical polarization components along (a, b) directions. d The angle θ_M. e MAE (in μeV Cr⁻¹) in the ab plane. The switching coordinate of 0.0 and 1.0 represent + P_a and − P_a, respectively. The insets of the panel c and d are the sketches of the directions of P and M at the corresponding intermediate structures of the switching coordinate.