Effect of Ba and Ho co-doping on crystal structure, phase transformation, magnetic properties and dielectric properties of BiFeO3

Multiferroics having composition Bi0.80-xBa0.20HoxFeO3 (BBFO, BBHFO5, BBHFO10, BBHFO15 and BBHFO20 for x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 respectively) were synthesized by method of solid state reaction. The crystal structure has been studied using X-ray diffraction technique. The X-ray patterns show enormous transform in crystal structure at concentration x = 0.20. The Rietveld refinement of XRD patterns indicates that at concentration x = 0.0 sample have rhombohedral structure with R3c space group while for the concentration x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20, the mixed phase including rhombohedral R3c and triclinic P1 space groups were obtained with best fitting. This phase transformation in crystal structure is observed due to mismatching of ionic radii of doped ions and parent ions. Magnetic properties of all samples were carried out by using vibrating sample magnetometry. M-H hysteresis loops shows that with doping of Ba and Ho antiferromagnetic BiFeO3(BFO) transforms into ferromagnetic. The dielectric and ferroelectric measurements were carried out which shows that dielectric constant, dielectric loss and ferroelectric properties are enhanced with co-doping of Ho in comparison of the pristine BFO due to structure deformation and decrease in oxygen vacancies with higher concentration of Ho. Significant improvement has been observed in dielectric constant and remnant magnetization values with increasing content of Ho and decrease in the dielectric loss.