Titanium doping of BiFeO 3 ceramics and identification of minor phases by Raman spectroscopy

• Published in: Journal of Raman spectroscopy 2017-06, Vol.48 (6), p.884-890
• Main Authors: Bernardo, M. S., Calatayud, D. G., Jardiel, T., Makovec, D., Peiteado, M., Caballero, A. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0377-0486; 1097-4555
• DOI: 10.1002/jrs.5116

Titanium substitution can improve the multiferroic properties of bismuth ferrite materials, albeit the structural changes that this dopant produces in the perovskite structure of BiFeO 3 are still not well understood. Due to its high sensitivity, Raman spectroscopy can be a useful tool for trailing the dopant incorporation. In this work, we study the Raman spectra of undoped and Ti 4+ ‐doped BiFeO 3 ceramics that also contain small amounts of secondary phases – as it is usual for materials of this system. The micro‐Raman study together with a rigorous derivative analysis of the experimental Raman spectra recorded at low temperature (73 K) enables, for the first time, the identification of the Raman bands associated with the BiFeO 3 phase together with those belonging to the minor secondary phases. The comparison between the Raman spectra of the undoped and the Ti 4+ ‐doped materials indicates that some of the titanium added to the composition interacts with the secondary phases while only a partial amount of this dopant actually incorporates into the BiFeO 3 phase. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.