Effect of doping of vanadium ions on crystal structure, dielectric and magnetic properties of Bi0.8Ba0.2FeO3 multiferroic

• Refinement has been done by hexagonal representation of R3c space group.
• Magnetic properties are affected by the distortion in Fe–O octahedral.
• Dielectric properties have improved on co-doping.

Synthesis of Bi0.8Ba0.2Fe1−xVxO3 multiferroics (with x=0.0, 0.02 and 0.04 having code V0, V2 and V4, respectively) have been done by solid-state reaction technique. The structural, magnetic and electrical characterization of the prepared ceramics have been carried out using X-ray diffraction, Vibrating sample magnetometry and impedance spectroscopy, respectively. Rietveld refinement studies show that all samples have rhombohedral structure (R3c). The observed lattice distortion is due to the difference in the ionic radii of parent ions and doped ions. Sizeable M–H hysteresis loops revealed the transformation of antiferromagnetic BiFeO3 (BFO) into ferromagnetic with Ba and V addition. The highest values of coercive field ~4.5 kOe and saturation magnetization ~1.14 emu/g are observed for V0 and V2 samples, respectively. The dielectric properties were improved with the co-doping as compared with the pure BFO compound due to structural distortion and decrease of oxygen vacancies by addition of higher valence V5+ cation.