Dielectric and optical properties of Ni-doped LaFeO3 nanoparticles

Un-doped and Ni-doped lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized by solid-state method. Ni concentration-dependent structural, dielectric and optical properties of synthesized nanoparticles were investigated. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed predominant single-phase orthorhombic crystal structure with space group Pbnm in all samples. Average crystallite size was found to vary from 19 to 21 nm with Ni concentration. The field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed nanocrystalline structure with homogenous distribution of particles. UV–Vis–NIR diffuse spectra captured at room temperature indicate that La1−xNixFeO3 is an indirect band gap material. The band gap varies from 1.70 to 1.85 eV with changing Ni concentration. Frequency-dependent dielectric constant, dielectric loss and ac conductivity were studied at room temperature. The dielectric constant was found to increase with increasing Ni content at high frequency. The loss factor resulted from domain wall resonance exhibited an identical dispersion behavior of dielectric constant. At high frequencies, the dielectric losses of orthoferrites were found to be low. This is attributed to the restricted motion of domain wall pointing its plausible practical applications in magnetically tunable filters and oscillators.