Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Properties of Single-Phase Yb2NiMnO6 Double-Perovskites

Here we present the potential for single-phase Yb2NiMnO6 as a multiferroic 2D material with coupled ferroelectric/magnetic orders synthesized via solid-state reaction. Realistically large room- to elevated-temperature stable switching polarization reversal loops confirm the elevated temperature dense data bit storage material. Temperature-stable ferroelectricity and fine polarization recorded at room temperature and read at 200°C confirm elevated temperature dense data storage. The physics behind the coexistence of coupled orders is the focus of this work. Realistically large ferroelectric polarization loops produced at ±400 kV/cm confirm saturation polarization (PS) at around 20 μC/cm2. Microstructural and compositional analysis reveals that the ferromagnetic signature is generated from single-phase Yb2NiMnO6 with a confidence level of 99.95%. Rietveld refined x-ray diffraction reveals that Yb2NiMnO6 is a single-phase material displaying a GdFeO3-type orthorhombic structure with distorted (Ni/Mn)O6 (pnma; a = 5.5519 Ǻ; b = 5.1851 Ǻ; c = 7.4396 Ǻ; V = 214.18 Ǻ3). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms that Yb2NiMnO6 constituting the Mn2P3/2 core level appears at ∼642.2 eV and an Ni2P3/2 peak appears at ∼855.3 eV, displaying +4 and +2 valence states. Frequency dispersion and scaling behaviour in dielectric (ε′) and dielectric loss (tanσ) indicate that the relaxation mechanism is independent of temperature. The σDC versus 1/T slope confirms that the hopping mechanism is responsible for charge carrier transport. The complex impedance reveals that the relaxation/conduction is the bulk effect arising from the semiconductor grains displaying grain resistance and capacitance with respect to temperature (113–363 K) and frequency (1–1 × 107 Hz). We have correlated and presented the effect of the microstructure on the electrical properties using an equivalent circuit (RgQg) (RgbQgb) (RcQc) at low temperature and changing to (RgbQgb) (RcQc) on high temperature. MS, HC and MR extracted from the ferromagnetic hysteresis loop are 11.75 emu/g, 180 Oe and 4.15 emu/g at room temperature (300 K). The zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetization (ZFC–FC) curve confirms the ferromagnetic nature. From these results, we show that Yb2NiMnO6 is multiferroic, with potential for application in four-state logic memory, ferroelectric random access memory and ferroelectric/magnetic sensors.