Optical, magnetic and electrical properties of new binary MnTiO3-modified Ba(Zr,Ti)O3 materials as solid solution

Abstract

The complex binary MnTiO3-modified lead-free ferroelectric Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 materials were successfully fabricated using a simple wet chemical method. X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering spectral studies revealed that Mn cations were randomly distributed within the host lattice, reducing the optical band gap energy from 3.16 eV (pure Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3) to 2.43 eV (9 mol.% MnTiO3). The magnetic properties of Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 compounds varied with MnTiO3 addition, transitioning from weak-ferromagnetism to typical ferromagnetism and further exhibiting antiferromagnetic-like and/or paramagnetic-like behavior. The maximum magnetic moment was obtained at around 19.4 memu/g, along with a coercive field and remanent magnetization of 92 Oe and 0.6 memu/g, respectively. Additionally, nonlinear polarization with a maximum electrical polarization of 3.11 μC/cm2 remained at 9 mol.% MnTiO3-modified Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 compounds. We expected that the observed both ferromagnetism and nonlinear polarization in MnTiO3-modified Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 compounds at room temperature would facilitate their use in smart electronic devices.