Solid state synthesis and characterization of multiferroic BiFeO₃ ceramics

Abstract

BiFeO₃ is a promising multiferroic material for future spintronic devices like sensors and actuators. The problems in the synthesis of phase pure BiFeO₃ are well known and often lead to inferior ferroelectric properties. Work reported here was carried out to optimize the calcination temperature to obtain pure phase BiFeO₃ via a solid state reaction method. The calcined samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for analyzing the phase purity of the samples. XRD patterns of the calcined samples suggest that the crystallization of the pure BiFeO₃ phase is obtained at a heating temperature of 810ºC whilst a deviation in calcination temperatures leads to the enhanced formation of impurity phases. Samples were further characterized using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) to study the temperature dependence of the magnetization and hysteresis behaviour of BiFeO₃ at room temperature upon increasing the magnetic field strength.