Exposition of structural, microstructural and optical properties of Mg and Zr doped BiFeO₃ for profound optoelectronic device applications

ABSTRACT

Magnesium (Mg) and zirconium (Zr) doped bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃; BFO) ceramics such as Bi_1−xMg_xFeO₃ (Mg doped BFO; BMO), BiFe_1−xZr_xO₃ (Zr doped BFO; BZO) and Bi_1−xMg_xFe_1−xZr_xO₃ (both Mg and Zr doped BFO; BMZO) with x = 0 and 0.1 were synthesized by solid-state reaction techniques. The distorted rhombohedral structures of doped BFO were confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The microstructural analysis revealed that there were uniform dispersions and homogeneous distributions of ceramics in BMZO as compared to BMO, BZO and plane BFO. The optical properties signified that BMZO having the lowest optical band gap had profound optical performance in optoelectronic device applications than that of BMO, BZO and plane BFO.

KEYWORDS:

• Doping
• BiFeO₃
• structural
• microstructure
• band gap

Acknowledgment

The authors are thankful to Sambalpur University for providing the facilities for research works. The authors also thank NIT Raipur for providing the facilities of XRD and SEM study, and University Grant Commissions (UGC) (F. No: 42-277/2013) (SR), New Delhi, Government of India, and UGC-DRS, DST-FIST & DST Govt. of Odisha, for the financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University Grant Commissions, India [grant number F. No. 42-277/2013 (SR)].