Study of the structural, dielectric and magnetic properties of Bi1-xBaxFeO3 (x=0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4)

A series of Bi1-xBaxFeO3 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) multiferroic samples have been prepared using rapid two stage solid state reaction method in order to study the effect of different concentrations of barium on the crystal structure, dielectric and magnetic properties. Structural analysis has been performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. Rietveld refined XRD data confirms that all the samples except 40% are of single phase, having hexagonal structure with R3c space group. Unit cell volume increases with increase in Ba concentration. Dielectric measurements have been performed in the temperature range of 100-450 K at selected frequencies in the range 120-1120 kHz which show weak frequency dispersion. Activation energies are calculated and are almost same for all the samples. Exchange bias in hysteresis loops and considerable enhancement in magnetic properties have been observed for all the samples. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.