Abstract
The room temperature magnetic hysteresis (M-H) loops reveal ferromagnetic-like behavior in an antiferromagnetically ordered LaFeO3 (LFO) material system synthesized by the sol–gel method. The maximum magnetization (Mmax) for the undoped sample annealed at 800 °C is 1.08 emu/g, whereas, with the same annealing, materials that are Dy and Y doped (25%) exhibit four times higher magnetization. It is interesting to note that non-magnetic ion Y3+ doped LFO has the same magnetization as magnetic ion Dy3+ doped nanomaterials. Reduction of particle and crystallite size plays a significant role in enhancing the net magnetization of doped materials. While the magnetization in Y-doped materials is attributed to the anti-symmetric exchange interaction (AEI) through spin canting, the greater magnetization for Dy doped samples is related to the AEI as well as inherent magnetic moment of the Dy3+ ion. The quantified tilting angle (Fe–O–Fe) is higher and the bond length (Fe–O) is smaller for Y-doped compounds compared to Dy-doped samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for oxygen 1s spectra shows that the relative area of O1− is higher in Dy-doped LFO than Y-doped sample. Ferroelectric hysteresis loops exhibit spontaneous electric polarization with reduced leakage current for Y-doped LFO, while other compounds show leaky behavior.
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