Room-temperature dielectric relaxation and magnetic properties in rutile-type FeTiNbO6

•The FeTiNbO6 ceramics have been prepared through a solid-state reaction route.•The low temperature dielectric relaxation is originated from the dipolar effects.•FeTiNbO6 is a novel multiferroic material with tetragonal rutile structure.

FeTiNbO6 ceramics have been prepared through a solid-state reaction route. The room-temperature dielectric relaxation and magnetic characteristics of FeTiNbO6 were investigated together with the crystal structure. The present ceramics were characterized by tetragonal rutile structure in space group P42/mnm. An obvious dielectric relaxation with strong frequency dispersion and following the modified Debye equation was detected in low temperature range, which can be assumed to the carrier hopping process between Fe2+ and Fe3+. Temperature dependence of the dc conductivity (σdc) follows well to Mott variable range hopping (VRH) mechanism. The comparison of the dielectric behaviors between the as-sintered samples and the O2-annealed samples shows that the low-temperature relaxation in FeTiNbO6 is indeed polarnic in nature. Moreover, the slim magnetic hysteresis loop was detected at room temperature, indicating the weak ferromagnetism in FeTiNbO6 ceramics.

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