Sillenite phase stabilized ferromagnetic ordering in multiphasic magnetoelectric bismuth ferrite

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis of Sillenite phase stabilized multiphasic magnetoelectric Bismuth Ferrite. Five set of samples were prepared by employing different synthesis techniques namely soft chemical route and rapid liquid phase sintering. These samples were prepared by varying the stoichiometry of the precursors to identify the optimum conditions for the formation of the multiferroic phase of Bismuth Ferrite and characterized using X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, SQUID VSM and Ferroelectric loop tracer. It is found that tartaric acid plays an important role in the stabilization of the Sillenite phase. The Sillenite phase imparts magnetic property to the already ferroelectric BiFeO3 and this material exhibits magnetoelectric characteristics. The details are discussed in this paper.