Abstract
The increasing plead for the realization of ultra-fast, miniaturize, compact and ultra-low power consumption in electronic as well as spintronic devices has propelled the quest for novel multiferroic materials which enable voltage control of magnetism in an energy efficient way. The present work reports the phase stability, magnetic and dielectric properties of polycrystalline Bi1-xLaxFe1-yNiyO3 (0≤x≥0.2 and 0≤y≥0.2) multiferroic ceramics synthesized through a simplistic sol-gel approach. The maneuver substitutions of La at Bi site in the BiFeO3 multiferroic eliminate the usual impurity phases. Rietveld refined XRD patterns reveals the structural evolution of orthorhombic (Pbnm) phase with the increasing Bi content at La site and further Ni substitutions at Fe sites induces the lattice distortion. A substantial enhancement in multi-ferroic behaviour has been observed for Ni and La co-substituted samples, due to the size confinement effect of nano-crystallites, the exchange interaction between Fe3+ and Ni2+ ions and corresponding change in Fe-O-Fe bond angles led by the co-substitution. The dielectric constant has observed to be increased by two-fold in the low frequency region with the La and Ni co-substitutions at A (Bi) and B (Fe) -sites respectively. The zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) magnetization curves show spin glass like behavior with an embedded ferromagnetic component. The results indicate that the co-substitutions of La and Ni at the respective sites of Bi1-xLaxFe1-yNiyO3 (0≤x≥0.2 and 0≤y≥0.2), can significantly improve the ferromagnetic and dielectric properties of BiFeO3 nanoceramics.
Highlights
Multiferroics are among the special class of materials having ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases simultaneously and being studied extensively in the recent past as they offer some of the most promising applications of technological importance [1,2,3,4,5]
Diffraction peaks originated from (012), (104), (110), (006), (202), (024), (116), (112), (018), and (300) reflection planes have been the characteristic peaks of BiFeO3 and indexed well with the known rhombohedral distorted perovskite structure having space group R3c (JCPDS No 86-1518)
Bi1−xLaxFe1−yNiyO3 nanoceramics have successfully been synthesized by ethylene glycol–based sol– gel method
Summary
Multiferroics are among the special class of materials having ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases simultaneously and being studied extensively in the recent past as they offer some of the most promising applications of technological importance [1,2,3,4,5]. Despite tremendous advanced researches in the area of BFO, it is still difficult to develop a low-temperature synthesis protocol, which does not involve the formation of intermediate impurity phases [20, 21] These impurity phases have a great influence on magnetic, electrical, and other properties of the multiferroic materials. In this context, La doping at Bi− site has been of particular interest because of (1) the large difference in ionic radii of Bi3+ and La3+ and (2) the increase in dielectric constant and decrease in leakage current [34]. Ni has been an effective candidate among various B− site substituents in BFO with better multiferroic response [35,36,37,38,39]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
