Effect of Eu, Ti co-doping on the structural and multiferroic properties of BiFeO3 ceramics

Multiferroic ceramics Bi0.95Eu0.05Fe1−xTixO3 (x=0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) were prepared by using the conventional solid-state reaction method followed by rapid liquid phase sintering. The structural, dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic properties were investigated. The XRD and Raman results show that Eu-Ti co-doping induces a structure phase transition. The SEM investigation indicates that the Eu-Ti co-doping can hinder the grain growth. The dielectric and ferroelectric measurements reveal that enhancement in dielectric properties, frequency independence, and ferroelectric properties are observed in Eu-Ti co-doped samples due to the reduction of oxygen vacancies by co-doping. Room temperature magnetic measurements show that ferromagnetism exists in co-doped ceramics, and the remnant magnetization increases significantly with increasing Ti substitution concentration. The possible reasons may be the co-doping-induced collapse of cycloidal spin structure and internal structural distortion. These studies suggest that Eu-Ti co-doped BFO bulk is a promising candidate for magnetoelectric coupling studies.