Antiferromagnetic and dielectric behavior in polycrystalline GdFe0.5Cr0.5O3 thin film

Jianhang Shi,Menka Jain,Mingwan Zhang,Pu-Xian Gao,Mark E Johnson

doi:10.1063/1.5142177

Abstract

Single phase materials with both spontaneous electric polarization and magnetization are rare, despite remarkable efforts in developing magnetoelectric multiferroics. In this work, a single-phase polycrystalline GdFe0.5Cr0.5O3 (GFCO) thin film was spin-coated onto a platinized silicon substrate. X-ray diffraction data suggest that the film exhibits an orthorhombic perovskite structure with a Pbnm space group. No other impurity phases were detected. Magnetization measurements reveal the Néel temperature of the GFCO film to be ∼220 K and illustrate a weak ferromagnetic component at 5 K, which could be due to spin canting. Frequency dependent ferroelectric–paraelectric transition was observed around 480 K, indicating the diffuse relaxor-like behavior. The electric field dependent polarization measurements show a lossy behavior below 200 K. The electric field dependent dielectric constant (tunability) measured at 1 MHz in a wide temperature range reveals that the tunability maximizes near the observed dielectric maxima, which further confirms the ferroelectric to paraelectric transition in the present film.

Highlights

Magnetoelectric multiferroics (ME MFs), in particular, have drawn interest as they show a cross coupling between the magnetic and electric orders in the same phase that enables mutual control of magnetism and ferroelectricity,3,4 which is crucial for multifunctional device applications, such as spintronics, magnetoelectric memories, filters, attenuators, and transducers
The polycrystalline GdFe0.5Cr0.5O3 film was successfully synthesized by using a layer-by-layer spin coating approach
The single phase GdFe0.5Cr0.5O3 film with orthorhombic Pbnm symmetry was confirmed by the XRD pattern

Summary

Introduction

Multiferroic materials are the ones that possess two or three ferroic properties: ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and ferroelasticity. this original definition was later broadened to include antiferroic orders. Such materials have been of great interest over the past fifteen years as they provide a platform to study the fundamental physics and show great potential for technological applications. Magnetoelectric multiferroics (ME MFs), in particular, have drawn interest as they show a cross coupling between the magnetic and electric orders in the same phase that enables mutual control of magnetism and ferroelectricity, which is crucial for multifunctional device applications, such as spintronics, magnetoelectric memories, filters, attenuators, and transducers.5Room temperature ME MFs are crucial for devices to be operated at room temperature. At present, finding new single phase ME MF materials and/or improving (ferroelectric polarization, transition temperatures close to room temperature, and stronger ME coupling) already known materials constitutes an important research direction in materials physics. Multiferroic materials are the ones that possess two or three ferroic properties: ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and ferroelasticity.. Multiferroic materials are the ones that possess two or three ferroic properties: ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and ferroelasticity.1 This original definition was later broadened to include antiferroic orders.. Magnetoelectric multiferroics (ME MFs), in particular, have drawn interest as they show a cross coupling between the magnetic and electric orders in the same phase that enables mutual control of magnetism and ferroelectricity, which is crucial for multifunctional device applications, such as spintronics, magnetoelectric memories, filters, attenuators, and transducers.. At present, finding new single phase ME MF materials and/or improving (ferroelectric polarization, transition temperatures close to room temperature, and stronger ME coupling) already known materials constitutes an important research direction in materials physics.

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