Effect of Fe3+ substitution on structural, optical and magnetic properties of barium titanate ceramics

Multiferroic BaTi1−xFexO3 (0≤x≤0.12) materials were synthesized using the solid-state reaction method. The influence of Fe on the crystalline structure, the electronic structure, the optical properties and the magnetic property of BaTi1−xFexO3 samples were investigated. The obtained X-ray diffraction patterns, Raman and UV–vis spectra showed that the structure of the material sensitively depends on Fe dopant content, x, and transforms gradually from the tetragonal (P4mm) phase to the hexagonal (P63/mmc) one with increasing x. The photoluminescence emission of BaTi1−xFexO3 was attributed to structural disorder. All of the samples exhibit both ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism at room temperature. The relaxor like behavior was observed for all samples. The magnetization at a magnetic field of 1 T abnormally depends on x, increases up to 0.1 then decreases monotonously afterward. This anomaly in the magnetic behavior can be explained in terms of the changes in the oxidation state of ions such as the Fe3+-to-Fe4+ and/or Ti4+-to-Ti3+ change induced by oxygen vacancies. The substitution of Fe into Ti sites also causes the changes in the conductivity of the material and impurity (acceptor) levels in the band gap, which can be evident from the absorption spectra, and time-dependent leakage current measured at room temperature.