Investigation On Magnetic Behaviour Of BiFeO3: SPIN Glass View Point

Abstract

Field cooled (FC) and zero field cooled (ZFC) magnetization measurements of Bismuth Ferrite (BiFeO3) multiferroic obtained by microwave-assisted gel combustion method are reported. The structural investigation of sythesized and calcined sample is done by XRD and the obtained data is well fitted with Rietveld refinement using full-pro software suite. M-H hysterisis shows that BFO nanoparticles exhibit ferromagnetic properties at room temperature, which is unusally observed in BFO. The M -T plot at H = 1 and 2 kOe shows that the FC and ZFC magnetization curve start to differ at below 331K and 236 K respectively with sharp cusp around 124 K revealing spin glass behaviour of BiFeO3. Both ferromagnetic properties and spin-glass-like behavior are observed in BFO nanoparticles. Ferromagnetic behavior is attributed to a partial destruction in nanoparticles of the long-wavelength cycloid spin structure expected in bulk BFO. Spin-glass-like behavior is assigned to diffusion of domain walls, with possible contributions from pinning of the cycloid spin structure at the nanoparticle surface.