Enhanced multiferroic properties in La and Ce co-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles

•Multiferroic properties of La and Ce co-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles are reported for the first time.•XRD studies reveal high purity of the samples without any secondary phases.•Addition of small amount of Ce has been found to yield fruitful results in terms of magnetic dielectric and ferroelectric properties.•A parallel correspondence between the dielectric properties and ferroelectric properties are observed.

Room temperature multiferroic properties of BiFeO3 (BFO), Bi0.9La0.1FeO3 ((La)BFO) and Bi0.9La0.075Ce0.025FeO3 ((La,Ce)BFO) nanoparticles have been reported in this paper. XRD (X-ray diffraction) analyses of the nanoparticles show a decrease in the lattice constants and cell volume with the substitution of La and Ce. It is evident from the SEM (scanning electron microscope) micrographs that the (La,Ce) co-doped sample possesses dense microstructure made of smaller particles. Raman study accounts for the weakening of the strong hybridization between Bi-O by the substitution of La and Ce ions. This is also accompanied by an increase in the remanent magnetization, dielectric constant, and ferroelectric polarization. BFO nanoparticles show exchange bias effect under an applied magnetic field while the (La)BFO and (La,Ce)BFO samples show no trace of such effect. Ac-conductivity of (La,Ce) co-doped sample is observed to be several orders lesser in magnitude than bulk BFO ceramics. These results are interpreted by means of the subtle change in the structure, suppression of the spin cycloid and reduction of oxygen vacancies in the doped samples.