Enhanced Ferromagnetism of Ho, Mn co-Doped BiFeO₃ Nanoparticles

Abstract

Polycrystalline BiFeO₃ and Ho, Mn co-doped BiFeO₃ nanoparticles were prepared using solution-gelation technology. The microstructures, phase structure, and magnetization were investigated for the nanoparticles. The analysis on x-ray diffraction indicates that the structure of nanoparticles transforms from hexahedron phase to tetragonal phase after doping metals of Ho and Mn. The ferromagnetism in Ho, Mn co-doped BiFeO₃ nanoparticles is enhanced compared to the pure BiFeO₃ nanoparticles. The enhancement is attributed to the phase change and modification of the anti-parallel spin structure by doping metals of Ho and Mn. The present work provides an available way on enhancing ferromagnetism of single-phase multiferroics.

Keywords:

• Ferromagnetism
• BiFeO₃
• nanoparticles
• multiferroics

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10904065, 11264026), the National Key Projects for Basic Research of China (2012CB626815), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (Nos. 20080441042, 200902512), Program for Young Talents of Science and Technology in Universities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (NJYT-12-B05), and Program of Higher-Level Talents of Inner Mongolia University (115109).