Abstract
The ferroelectric and magnetic properties of hot-pressed BiFeO3- (BFO) polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite films have been studied. The BiFeO3 (BFO) ceramics have been synthesized by a rapid liquid phase sintering technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies revealed that the impure phase observed in pure BFO ceramics was significantly reduced in the composite films. The presence of both ferroelectric and magnetic hysteresis loops confirms the multiferroic nature of the composite films at room temperature. A well-saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loop with a remanent polarization (Pr)∼4.8 μC-cm-2 and coercive field (Ec)∼1.55 kV/cm has been observed in composite thin films at room temperature. The magnetic hysteresis loops were traced at room temperature with SQUID. The remanent magnetization (Mr)∼3.0×10−3 emu/gm and coercive field (Hc)∼0.99 kOe was observed in the composite film. The magnetic polarization of the composite films has found to be enhanced as compared to pure BFO and correlated to reduction in BFO impure peak intensity.
Highlights
The coexistence of ferroelectric and magnetic nature in a single material, known as multiferroics, gives an additional degree of freedom to design various unconventional devices, such as multiple-state memory elements and electric-field controlled magnetic sensors [1, 2]
The observed X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns could be indexed to the rhombohedral structure with space group R3c in BFO ceramics at room temperature according to the JCPDS card no. 71-2494 (a = b = 5.577 A, c = 1 3.86 A ) [15, 16]
The XRD pattern of BFO-polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite film contains all the peaks of BFO in addition to the PVDF major peaks observed at 17.88◦, 18.50◦, and 20.05◦
Summary
The coexistence of ferroelectric and magnetic nature in a single material, known as multiferroics, gives an additional degree of freedom to design various unconventional devices, such as multiple-state memory elements and electric-field controlled magnetic sensors [1, 2]. Very few materials have shown coexistence of ferroelectricity and magnetism but their ME coupling remains weak at room temperature [3, 4]. BiFeO3(BFO) is one such material in which ferroelectricity and antiferromagnetism coexist at room temperature and it has a rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure with the space group R3c. The polarization in case of bulk single crystal BFO were only 3.5 and 6.1 μC/cm along the (001) and (111) axes, respectively [8], and are expected in BFO due to the large distortion of the lattice and high Tc. there are still some great obstacles and further investigation is required in the preparation and characterization properties of BFO ceramic for technological applications and they include a high leakage current, wide difference in ferroic transition temperatures (Tc and TN ), weak magnetic characteristics, and lower magnetoelectric coupling coefficients. The structural and morphological properties were studied and correlated with multiferroic properties
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