Augmentation of optical and magnetic characteristics at ambient temperature in bismuth ferrite-titanium (BiFe1–xTixO3) multiferroic compounds

Abstract

A facile sol–gel approach was utilized to synthesis BiFe _1-x Ti _x O _3 multiferroic ferrites, denoted as BFO- x Ti (with x from 0.00 to 0.10). XRD analysis revealed that the undoped BFO ferrite exhibited a rhombohedral structure, and a transition from the rhombohedral phase to the pseudo-cubic phase occurred as the Ti content increased. The optical band gap increased from 2.00 eV to 2.23 eV with a Ti substitution at 0.10 mol. The magnetic properties exhibited a transition from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase due to the structural phase transition and super-exchange interaction between the 3d orbitals of Ti ^4+ and Fe ^3+ /Fe ^2+ at the B-sites through oxygen vacacies. The sample with a 0.10 mol Ti substitution demonstrated the highest M _s and M _r values of 3.68 emu g ^−1 and 7.21 × 10 ^–3 emu g ^−1 , respectively. Overall, the results suggest that the BiFe _1-x Ti _x O _3 multiferroic ferrites with optimal composition hold promise for use in magneto-optical devices.

Keywords

• multiferroic
• optical
• ferromagnetic
• magneto-optical