Effects of ion doping at different sites on electrical properties of multiferroic BiFeO3 ceramics

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2008-03, Vol.41 (6), p.065003-065003 (4)
• Main Authors: Yu, Benfang, Li, Meiya, Liu, Jun, Guo, Dongyun, Pei, Ling, Zhao, Xingzhong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Dielectric loss and relaxation; Dielectric properties of solids and liquids; Dielectrics, piezoelectrics, and ferroelectrics and their properties; Domain structure; hysteresis; Exact sciences and technology; Ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity; Permittivity (dielectric function); Physics
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/41/6/065003

Pure, La3+ doped at A site, V5+ doped at B site, and La3+ and V5+ co-doped multiferroic BiFeO3 ceramics: BiFeO3 (BFO), Bi0.85La0.15FeO3 (BLF), BiFe0.97V0.03O3 (BFV), Bi0.85La0.15Fe0.97V0.03O3 (BLFV), etc were successfully prepared by a rapid liquid sintering technique. X-ray diffraction indicated that these ceramics were of polycrystalline perovskite structures, accompanied with a tiny residual Bi2O3 phase. It was found that, among these ceramics, BLFV ceramic exhibited the best electrical properties. The leakage current density of BLFV ceramic was only 2.1 X 10-6 A cm-2 at 10 kV cm-1, two and one orders of magnitude lower than those of the BLF and BFV ceramics, respectively. In the measuring frequency of 4 KHz-1 MHz, the dielectric constants and losses of this sample exhibited slight variation and the lowest loss tangent was 0.08. The sample had a relatively saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loop. These suggested that the co-doped BiFeO3 ceramic by La3+ and V5+ at A and B sites showed advantages in application over the pure BFO, doped BLF and BFV ceramics, respectively.