Effect of W/Co co-substitution on structural, microstructural, magnetic and electrical properties of Bi4NdFeTi3O15 aurivillius compound

Abstract

Here, in this paper, we have reported the structural, microstructural, optical, ferroelectric and magnetic properties of Nd and W/Co co-substituted Bi4NdTi3−2x(W/Co2)xFeO15 (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.15) 4-layered Aurivillius multiferroic ceramics. These ceramics were prepared by conventional high-temperature solid-state reaction method. The room temperature (RT) X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman studies revealed that, these ceramics exhibits a pure orthorhombic structure with A21am space group. The surface morphology of these ceramic studies confirmed the formation of randomly oriented grains as non-uniform in size. Further, W/Co2 substitution in BNFT revealed the presence of asymmetrical shaped internal nano-size domains. The band gap of the ceramics was calculated and found to be decreased upon with increasing the concentration of W/Co2. All compounds exhibited improved P–E loops with unsaturated polarization upon substitution with enhance polarization and reduced coercive field. It was found that with higher substitution levels x ≥ 0.10 adversely affected the ferroelectric characteristics. The magnetic measurement revealed that Nd and W/Co co-substitution induced a strong ferromagnetic interaction via Fe3+–O–Co2+/3+ coupling. The high-temperature magnetization studies revealed the Curie temperature (TC) enhances as the W/Co2 concentration increase. Henceforth, the observed outcomes are emphasized for designing new single-phase room temperature multiferroics in future magnetoelectric applications.