Effect of sintering temperatures on the magnetoelectric properties of Bi0.78La0.08Sm0.14Fe0.85Ti0.15O3 ceramics

Multiferroic materials attracted much attention because of magnetoelectric (ME) coupling effect. Herein, a typical single-phase multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) was co-doped at A and B sites by solid-state method, and Bi0.78La0.08Sm0.14Fe0.85Ti0.15O3 (BLSFTO) ceramics were prepared at different sintering temperatures (940, 960, 980 and, 1000°C). The effects of sintering temperature on the microstructure, morphology, dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic properties were systematically studied. The remanent polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) of the BLSFTO ceramics show a non-linear change with sintering temperature. The remanent polarization reaches maximum (0.0560 μC/cm2) in the sample sintered at 1000°C, whereas the maximum Ec of 1.32 kV/cm was obtained in the specimen sintered at 940°C. The remanent magnetization (Mr) increases with the increase of sintering temperature, while change of the saturation magnetization with sintering temperature is negligible. When BLSFTO specimen is sintered at 1000°C, Mr reaches the maximal value of 0.1344 emu/g.