Magnetism switching and band-gap narrowing in Ni-doped PbTiO3 thin films

Ions doping-driven structural phase transition accompanied by magnetism switching and band-gap narrowing effects has been observed in PbTi1−xNixO3−δ (xPTNO, x = 0.00, 0.06, and 0.33) thin films. With the increase of x, the xPTNO thin films exhibit not only a phase transition from the pseudotetragona...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2015-05, Vol.117 (19)
Main Authors: Zhou, Wenliang, Deng, Hongmei, Yu, Lu, Yang, Pingxiong, Chu, Junhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Diamagnetism
Electronic structure
Energy gap
Ferromagnetic materials
Lead titanates
Magnetic saturation
Magnetism
Materials selection
Molecular orbitals
Molecular structure
Nickel
Perovskites
Phase transitions
Switching
Thin films
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Ions doping-driven structural phase transition accompanied by magnetism switching and band-gap narrowing effects has been observed in PbTi1−xNixO3−δ (xPTNO, x = 0.00, 0.06, and 0.33) thin films. With the increase of x, the xPTNO thin films exhibit not only a phase transition from the pseudotetragonal structure to a centrosymmetric cubic structure but also a drastic decrease of grain size. Moreover, the as-grown Ni-doped PbTiO3 (PTO) thin films show obvious room-temperature ferromagnetism and an increased saturation magnetization with increasing the Ni content, in contrast to undoped PTO, which shows diamagnetism. A bound magnetic polaron model was proposed to understand the observed ferromagnetic behavior of PTO-derived perovskite thin films. Furthermore, the 0.33PTNO thin film presents a narrowed band-gap, much smaller than that of PTO, which is attributed to new states of both the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital in an electronic structure with the presence of Ni. These findings may open up a route to explore promising perovskite oxides as candidate materials for use in multiferroics and solar-energy devices.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.4921459