Structural evolution and coexistence of ferroelectricity and antiferromagnetism in Fe, Nb co-doped BaTiO3 ceramics

Multiferroics are materials that exhibit two or more primary ferroic properties within the same phase and have potential applications in sensors, spintronics and memory devices. Here, the dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic properties of novel multiferroics derived from BaTi1−x(Fe0.5Nb0.5)xO3 (BTFN, 0.01 ≤ x ≤ 0.10) ceramics are investigated. Multiferroism in these ceramics is manifested by the coexistence of ferroelectric long-range ordering and antiferromagnetism. With increasing x-value, there is a structural evolution from a tetragonal perovskite to a mixture of tetragonal and cubic phases, accompanied by a decrease in the temperature of maximum permittivity. At room temperature, ferroelectric behaviour is evidenced by the presence of current peaks corresponding to domain switching in the current-electric field loops, while the observation of non-linear narrow magnetic hysteresis loops suggests dilute magnetism. The results indicate that in the x = 0.07 composition the antiferromagnetic order is established through an indirect super-exchange interaction between adjacent Fe ions.