Tailoring the Magnetic and Optical Characteristics of Nanocrystalline BiFeO3 by Ce Doping

• Published in: Journal of the American Ceramic Society 2012-06, Vol.95 (6), p.1985-1992
• Main Authors: Bhushan, Bhavya, Wang, Zhenxing, van Tol, Johan, S. Dalal, Naresh, Basumallick, Amitava, Vasanthacharya, Nagasampagi Y., Kumar, Sanjay, Das, Dipankar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ceramics; Derivatives; Doping; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectrics; Fourier transforms; Iron; Measurement; Nanocrystals; Nanoparticles; Saturation; Temperature; Transition temperature
• ISSN: 0002-7820; 1551-2916
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2012.05132.x

The Ce‐doped BiFeO3 (BFO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using a facile sol–gel route with varying Ce concentrations in the range of 1–5 mol%. Ferroelectric transition temperature was found to shift from 723°C ± 5°C for pristine BFO NPs to 534°C ± 3°C for 5 mol% Ce‐doped BFO NPs. UV–Vis absorption spectra of BFO NPs showed a significant blue shift of ~100 nm on Ce doping. The Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectrum centered ~ 550 cm−1 becomes considerably broadened on Ce doping which is due to additional closely spaced vibrational peaks as revealed by the second derivative FTIR analysis. High‐frequency EPR measurements indicated that clustering occurs at high dopant levels, and that Fe is present as Fe3+, corroborating Mössbauer measurements. The values of saturation and remanent magnetization for 3% Ce‐doped BFO NPs are 3.03 and 0.49 emu/g, respectively, which are quite significant at room temperature, making it more suitable for technological applications.