Anisotropic electrical and magnetic properties in textured Bi5Ti3FeO15 ceramics

Textured Bi5Ti3FeO15 (BTFO) ceramics were prepared by molten salt synthesis at 850 °C followed by plasma activated sintering at 800 °C. The structure and the anisotropic electrical and magnetic properties of the ceramics were investigated. The textured BTFO ceramics exhibited [001] preferred orientation with a high degree of texture fraction (Lotgering factor is 0.82), as confirmed from XRD patterns, FE-SEM and TEM micrographs. The anisotropic dielectric relaxation and conduction characteristics along the parallel and perpendicular directions were investigated using the dielectric and impedance spectroscopies. The grain boundary along the parallel direction had a similar value of capacitance to that of grains, whereas the grain boundary along the perpendicular direction dominated the resistive component. The magnetic performance along the perpendicular direction (Hc ∼ 32.5 Oe) was better than that along the parallel direction (Hc ∼ 17.6 Oe). These results could be useful for enhancing the electrical and magnetic properties of BTFO by texturization.