Multiferroic and magnetoelectric properties of single-phase Bi0.85La0.1Ho0.05FeO3 ceramics

Single-phase Bi0.85La0.1Ho0.05FeO3 multiferroic ceramics were prepared by a rapid liquid sintering method. The ceramics exhibited an obvious ferroelectric loop with a remnant polarization of 11.2 μC/cm2 and also showed weak ferromagnetism with the remnant magnetization of 0.179 emu/g at room temperature. A considerable enhancement of the polarization on magnetic poling and a dielectric anomaly in the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic transition temperature due to the intrinsic magnetoelectric coupling effect were observed in Bi0.85La0.1Ho0.05FeO3 ceramics. The dielectric constant for the Bi0.8La0.1Ho0.05FeO3 samples at room temperature decreases with increasing applied magnetic fields, and the coupling coefficient (ɛ′(H) − ɛ′(0))/ɛ′(0) reaches −1.04% at H = 10 kOe.

► In this work, single-phase Bi0.85La0.1Ho0.05FeO3 ceramics were prepared by a rapid liquid sintering method with a view to achieving multiferroic materials with large magnetization and polarization.
► The ceramics exhibit an obvious ferroelectric loop with a remnant polarization of 11.2 μC/cm2 and also show weak ferromagnetism with the remnant magnetization of 0.179 emu/g at room temperature.
► A dielectric anomaly near the magnetic transition temperature (TN) was observed, revealing the existence of magnetoelectric coupling effect in the ceramics, which was further proved by measuring the effect of magnetic poling on the ferroelectric hysteresis loop and the change in the dielectric constant with the external magnetic field.
► These results suggest that Ho is a potential candidate to be substituted in BFO multiferroic material systems, which certainly helps to enhance multiferroic properties and possible multifunctional applications.