Structural, morphological, dielectric and ferroelectric properties of Nd substituted YFeO3 ceramics synthesized via sol gel auto-combustion route

Abstract

The effect of Nd3+ ion substitution on the structural, morphological, ferroelectric, and dielectric properties of Y1-xNdxFeO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.16) was investigated. The samples were prepared using the sol-gel auto-combustion route. The crystallite size was found to be in the range of 23 to 15 nm. The SEM exhibited that pure YFO shows an inhomogeneous shape of particles, while the substituted samples demonstrated a spherical shape and clusters of grains. The substitution of Nd3+ ions causes the splitting of vibrational characteristic bands υ1 from 450.71 to 479.1 cm−1 while characteristic band υ2 changes from 592.13.1 to 687.90 cm−1, respectively. The ferroelectric analysis indicated that polarization was 0.023 nC/cm2 to 0.007 nC/cm2 at a maximum applied field of 0.01 kV/cm. The dielectric constant of Nd3+ substituted YFO was increased as compared to pure YFO. All YFeO3 samples showed low values of tan loss (tanδ) es compared to pure YFO. Low dielectric losses of YFO suggest their utilization in multilayer chip inductors.