Room temperature multiferroic properties of Eu doped BiFeO3

Abstract

We have studied the multiferroic properties of Bi1−xEuxFeO3, x=0.03, 0.05, 0.07, and 0.1 ceramics prepared by conventional solid state reaction method. The substitution of Eu in place of Bi increases the magnetization at room temperature. An anomaly in the dielectric constant is observed at ∼400 °C which corresponds to TN. Room-temperature dielectric polarization–electric field (P-E) curves indicate that higher doped compositions exhibit saturated P-E loops with Pr (remnant polarization) of these BFO-based samples increasing with the degree of Eu modification. As a result, improved multiferroic properties of the Bi0.9Eu0.1FeO3 ceramics with remnant polarization and magnetization (Pr and Mr) of 11 μC/cm2 and 0.0347 emu/g, respectively, were obtained. The evidence of weak ferromagnetism and saturated ferroelectric hysteresis loops in Bi1−xEuxFeO3 system at room temperature makes it a good candidate for potential applications.