Effect of sintering temperature on structure and properties of GaFeO3

In this manuscript, we report on the effect of sintering temperature on functional behaviour of polycrystalline sol-gel synthesized GaFeO3 ceramic samples. Structural analysis of samples using x-ray diffraction and Raman studies revealed the existence of orthorhombic structure with no signature of any impurity phase. The samples exhibited a decrease in the lattice parameters and unit cell volume with increase in sintering temperature. This was concomitant with improvement in the nature of ferroelectric hysteresis loops and decrease in the electrical leakage with decreasing temperature with samples sintered at 1050 degrees C showing lowest electrical leakage. Temperature dependent impedance analysis of the samples shows presence of two relaxation processes: a high frequency response corresponding to the bulk i.e. grains with activation energy of ca. 0.35 eV and a low frequency response corresponding to the grain boundaries with activation energy of ca. 0.7 eV. Higher activation energy of grain boundary response is in accordance with the lowest electrical obtained for samples with smallest particle size. In contrast, the magnetic properties of the samples remained nearly unchanged. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.