The effect of La doping on multiferroic BiFeO3 ceramic through structural, dielectric, magnetic, ferroelectric, and optical studies

Abstract

In this study, La-doped bismuth ferrite (BLFO), Bi1-xLaxFeO3 (x = 0.00, 0.005, 0.007, 0.01) compositions have been synthesized via a solid-state method to investigate their structural, electrical, magnetic, ferroelectric, and optical properties. All the synthesized ceramics were found to be in rhombohedral distorted perovskite structures with R3c symmetry. A significantly reduced grain size with improved dielectric properties (enhanced dielectric constant and reduced dielectric loss) was observed with La doping up to composition x = 0.007. The magnetization study revealed that substitution of La in BFO enhances remnant magnetization (Mr) and coercive field (Hc). The ferroelectric study manifested that composition x = 0.007 retained a higher polarization value among all the ceramics. Moreover, the optical study exhibited that with doping, the bandgap increased from 2.49 eV for BFO to 2.64 for x = 0.007 ceramic. For the last composition x = 0.01, the bandgap decreased to 2.43 eV, which can be advantageous for magnetic photocatalysts applications.