Room-temperature magnetoelectric coupling in nanocrystalline nanocrystalline Pr2Ti2O7

Rare-earth titanate monoclinic nanocrystalline Pr2Ti2O7 was prepared by the sol–gel method. The nanocrystalline Pr2Ti2O7 pellets present room temperature ferromagnetism. Vacuum annealing enhances ferromagnetism which disappears for the pellet with subsequent long time air-annealing, indicating that the observed ferromagnetism is connected with the oxygen vacancies. The Pr2Ti2O7 pellets annealed at 1000 °C for 1 h show the coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature. The room-temperature magnetodielectric effect was observed in Pr2Ti2O7 pellets. In addition, the electric field treatment leads to an enormous enhancement of saturation magnetization for Pr2Ti2O7 multiferroic pellet, showing a strong magnetoelectric coupling.