Enhancement of Magnetic and Dielectric Properties in Chemically Modified Multiferroic (0.90)BiFe1−x Cr x O3–(0.10)BaTiO3 Nanocomposite

Abstract

Multiferroic BiFeO3 and Cr-doped (0.90)BiFe1−x Cr x O3–(0.10)BaTiO3 (x=0.00, 0.03, and 0.05) nanocomposites were prepared by sol–gel method. Optimum calcination and sintering strategies for obtaining pure perovskite phase have been determined. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used for the structural and particle size analysis, whereas LCR and SQUID magnetometer was used for dielectric and magnetic measurements. TEM measurements show that the average particle sizes of all the samples were ∼19 nm. The dielectric constant was found to be increased twofold in low frequency region with the Cr-doping for x=0.05 in (0.90)BiFe1−x Cr x O3–(0.10)BaTiO3. The hysteresis curve (M–H) exhibits ferromagnetic nature for all the samples (x=0.0, 0.03, and 0.05) and the spontaneous magnetization at room temperature was found to be 0.63 emu/gm in pure BiFeO3, which increased to 0.99 emu/gm for x=0.05. Zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) magnetization curves show large discrepancy suggesting spin glass behavior.