Preparation and structural characterization of Fe-doped BaTiO3 diluted magnetic ceramics

Fe-doped BaTiO3 ceramics produced from powders prepared by solid state reaction at various processing parameters (temperature, time) were investigated and discussed. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the existence of the tetragonal phase in BaTi1−xFexO3−x/2 (x=0.005) ceramics. The microstructural characterization reveals that a low calcination temperature leads to a higher densification of the bulk samples at around 96% relative density with average grain sizes ~6 µm. The oxidation state of the metal ions in the sintered samples analysed by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the presence of Ti4+2p3/2 and Ti4+2p1/2 peaks in Fe-doped BaTiO3 and the lack of Ti3+ ions, which confirms the compositional quality of these ceramics. The electron paramagnetic resonance measurements proved the incorporation of Fe ions as Fe3+ in the BaTiO3 lattice.