Structural, magnetic, and electrical properties of (1-x)Bi0.85La0.15FeO3-(x)CoFe2O4 multiferroic composites

In this study, the tartaric acid modified sol-gel method was used to synthesize (1-x)Bi0.85La0.15FeO3-(x)CoFe2O4 (BLFO-CFO) composites where x = 0.00, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, and 0.50. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicated the formation of composites with both BLFO and CFO crystal symmetry, i.e., perovskite and spinel structures, respectively. Rietveld refinement of the XRD patterns was performed for all of the samples in order to analyze the crystal phases and obtain the structural parameters. There were decreases in the lattice parameters of the perovskite phase as the CFO spinel phase increased in the composites, which may be explained by the strain at the interface of the BLFO and CFO phases. Electrical polarization and dielectric constant enhancements were observed in the BLFO-CFO composites compared with BLFO. The saturation magnetization increased as the CFO phase increased in the composites. The theoretical saturation magnetization (calculated using Vegard's law) was less than the experimentally observed value, possibly due to the spin interaction at the interface of BLFO and CFO.