Effect of Sr-doping on multiferroic properties of Bi 0.8La 0.2Fe 0.9Mn 0.1O 3

Abstract

The effect of Sr-doping on ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism at room temperature has been studied for Bi 0.8La 0.2Fe 0.9Mn 0.1O 3 ceramic system. X-ray diffraction shows that a structural phase transition occurs from rhombohedral structure of BiFeO 3 (space group R3c) to orthorhombic structure of Bi 0.8La 0.2FeO 3 (space group C222). Substitutions of Sr-ions in Bi-site and Mn-ions in Fe-site do not induce any further structural change. Moreover, doping of Sr-ions plays a crucial role to obtain single phased samples. DTA and TGA studies show that both the magnetic transition temperature ( TM) and the ferroelectric transition temperature ( TC) decrease for Bi 0.7Sr 0.1La 0.2Fe 0.9Mn 0.1O 3. Sr-doping enhances the ferroelectric property by increasing the electric polarization. MH measurement shows that Sr-ions partially destroy the spin cycloidal structure in it giving rise to weak ferromagnetism (nonlinearity) at room temperature. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.