  Group-IV monochalcogenides are a family of two-dimensional puckered materials
with an orthorhombic structure that is comprised of polar layers. In this
article, we use first principles calculations to show the multistability of
monolayer SnS and GeSe, two prototype materials where the direction of the
puckering can be switched by application of tensile stress or electric field.
Furthermore, the two inequivalent valleys in momentum space, which are dictated
by the puckering orientation, can be excited selectively using linearly
polarized light, and this provides an additional tool to identify the
polarization direction. Our findings suggest that SnS and GeSe monolayers may
have observable ferroelectricity and multistability, with potential
applications in information storage.
