Effects of Nd and high-valence Mn co-doping on the electrical and magnetic properties of multiferroic ceramics

✍ Scribed by Zhongqiang Hu; Meiya Li; Yang Yu; Jun Liu; Ling Pei; Jing Wang; Xiaolian Liu; Benfang Yu; Xingzhong Zhao

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 815 KB
• Volume: 150
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-1098
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssc.2010.03.015

✦ Synopsis

Pure BiFeO 3 (BFO), 15% Nd doped BFO (BNF), and 15% Nd and 2% high-valence Mn co-doped BFO (BNFM) multiferroic ceramics were prepared by a rapid liquid phase sintering technique. A structural transition from rhombohedral R3c to orthorhombic P4mm occurred in the BNF and BNFM ceramics. The co-doped BNFM ceramics exhibit the largest dielectric constant, the smallest dielectric loss and leakage current, and an improved rectangular-shaped polarization hysteresis loop with a remnant polarization as high as 31 µC/cm 2 , which could be attributed to the lower concentration of charge defects and the structural transition. Besides, enhanced ferromagnetism is confirmed in BNFM with a remnant magnetization of 0.075 emu/g and a coercive magnetic field of 5.8 kOe, which might be attributed to the effective suppression of the spatially modulated spin structure by the Nd and Mn co-doping.