Enhanced room temperature multiferroic behaviour of Ni-doped Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 ceramics

In this paper, room temperature multiferroic behaviour in Ni (Nickel)-doped NBT (Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 ) ceramics synthesized using solid state reaction technique have been investigated. Structural, dielectric, ferroelectric, magnetic and magneto-dielectric properties were consistently probed with the increment in transition metal doping. XRD peaks were indexed for the monoclinic Cc phase. SEM micrographs clearly depicted the reduction of grain size with addition of Ni content. Ferroelectric polarization (P) vs applied electric field (E) hysteresis curves shows an increase in lossy behaviour with an increase in Ni content. The room temperature magnetization (M) vs applied magnetic field (H) curves depict the weak ferromagnetic ordering on increasing the Ni doping. Enhanced magneto-dielectric change of 1.26% was observed in 25% Ni-doped NBT ceramic, which may be useful in the development of novel non-volatile lead-free multiferroic memory devices.