Enhanced Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Samarium (Sm) Doped Multiferroic Bismuth Ferrite (BFO) Ceramics

Abstract

Samarium (Sm) doped modified bismuth ferrite samples Bi1-xSmxFeO3 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.08, 0.1) were prepared by sol-gel technique. A detailed study on the electrical and magnetic properties of the samples was analyzed. X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the formation of the pure phase rhombohedral structure of bismuth ferrite. The dielectric constant (ε) and loss tangent (tan δ) show the large frequency dispersion at low frequency. AC conductivity was enhanced with Sm substitution of Bi sites. The enhancement in the ferroelectric properties was delineated by Polarization-Electric field (P-E) loops. Sm substitution of Bi improves the saturation magnetization and magneto-dielectric coefficients.

Keywords:

• Multiferroic materials
• AC conductivity
• electric polarization
• magnetization
• magneto-dielectric coefficient

Acknowledgements

One of the authors, Huidrom Hemanta Singh is thankful to CSIR, New Delhi for providing financial assistance as JRF student (File No. 09/476(0079)/2017-EMR-I). The author is thankful to the Department of Physics, Manipur University for extending the valuable facilities for taking XRD and Dielectric measurements. He is also thankful to Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF), IIT Guwahati for VSM measurement and Delhi University for P-E loop measurements.