Effect of sintering temperature on electrical behavior of BiFeO3 electroceramics.

Monophasic rhombohedral structure BiFeO3 electroceramics is successfully synthesized by conventional solid state reaction route followed by slow step sintering schedule. Effect of sintering temperature is found to be greatly influence its structural, dielectric, ferroelectric and leakage behavior of bulk ceramic. From XRD analysis it is seen that at lower sintering temperature (775°C) bulk BFO sample showed rhombohedral structure (R3c) along with few impurity phases, which become suppressed at higher temperature. The dielectric behavior and leakage current capacitive characteristic of the sample were improved significantly with increase in sintering temperature of BFO (825°C). At higher sintering temperature, ferroelectric behavior of the sample is found to change its shape from semi elliptical lossy P-E features to a typical ferroelectric loop with improvement of its remnant as well as saturation polarization value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]