Structural and magnetic properties of Er-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles

In this work, Bi1-xErxFeO3 ( x = 0.05-0.25) nanoparticles were prepared by sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction and Raman analysis show that the structure of Er-doped BiFeO3 changes from rhombohedral lattice to orthorhombic one by increasing x. The remnant magnetization of the Bi1-xErxFeO3 is significantly higher than those in BiFeO3 doped with non-magnetically rare-earth and it increases with increasing Er concentration. The enhanced magnetization was attributed to the suppression of the cycloidal spin structure by Er3+ substitution and the ferromagnetic interaction between Fe3+ and Er3+ ions. The variation of the magnetization with temperature is also discussed.