Multiferroism in rare earth metals-doped BiFeO3 nanowires

Nanowires are the key multifunctional materials for the development towards device miniaturization and high-density data storage systems for future nanoelectronics. In the present report, multifunctional undoped and rare earth metals ions (Gd3+, Tb3+, Dy3+)-doped BiFeO3 nanowires with 20 nm diameter, have been synthesized by template-assisted colloidal dispersion technique. The effect of the size of synthesized nanowires, as well as, the doping of rare earth ions on the structural, magnetic, dielectric and magnetodielectric properties have been studied. The doping of rare earth metals ions leads to structural transition from rhombohedral to orthorhombic BiFeO3 nanowires. The synthesized nanowires exhibit ferromagnetic nature with high value of saturation magnetization, dielectric constant and magnetodielectric coefficient. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.