Relaxor ferroelectricity, ferromagnetic and optical second harmonic properties in lanthanum lithium niobate (La0.05Li0.85NbO3) nanoparticles

Relaxor ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and Second Harmonic Generation properties were founded and studied as a function of a reduction heat treatment at 650 °C in a Ar-5%H2 atmosphere in stoichiometric La0.05Li0.85NbO3 nanoparticles of 40 nm. A diffuse dielectric anomaly related with relaxor behavior from 25 °C to 800 °C in a frequency range from 100 Hz to 1 MHz was founded. It also shows ferromagnetic anhysterestic type and ferroelectric hysteresis loops at room temperature with a magnetic spin remnant of 2.5 × 10−3 emu/g and polarization saturation of 0.235 μC/cm2, remnant polarization of 0.141 μC/cm2, coercive field of 1.35 kV/cm, respectively. It shows very good second harmonic generation signal at 450 nm and 500 nm. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, indicate an ABO3 perovskite structure, new electronic binding energy structure for La (5s, 4d), Li (1s), Nb (4s, 3d, 4p) and oxygen (1s, 2s) and new vibrations modes on octahedron NbO6 related to multiferroic single phase nanoparticles, respectively.