Structural, Magnetic and Dielectric Properties of Ba Doped BiFeO3 Thin Films

Multiferroic materials, exhibiting simultaneous presence of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic behavior, have attracted the researcher's attention due to promising applications. However, difficulties associated with BiFeO3 including volatile nature of Bi2O3, antiferromagnetic behavior, large leakage current etc. limit its industrial applications. In order to overcome these difficulties we here report synthesis and characterization of barium doped BiFeO3 thin films using sol-gel and spin coating method. The dopant concentration in Bi1-xBaFeO3 is varied as x=0.1, 0.2, 0.3. The films are annealed at 300 degrees C in the presence of vacuum under an applied field of 500Oe. Barium has ionic radius of 1.42 angstrom so it can replace bismuth that has an ionic radius of 1.17 angstrom. Films show high dielectric constant and low tangent loss till dopant concentration of 0.2. Inclusion of dopant results in homogeneity on spin structure thus leading to ferromagnetic behavior of doped bismuth iron oxide thin films. Degradation in magnetic and dielectric properties is observed with dopant concentration of 0.3 due to the presence of dopant oxide (BaO) in pure bismuth iron oxide phase. (C) Published by Elsevier Ltd.