Eu doping in multiferroic BiFeO3 ceramics studied by Mossbauer and EXAFS spectroscopy

Bismuth ferrite ceramics (BiFeO3) are multifunctional materials classified as multiferroics for their special magnetic and electric properties that can be modified by substitutional doping at the Bi and/or Fe sites. Understanding the relation between magnetoelectric response and structural/electronic modification upon doping is a relevant issue. In this work, the structure of Eu-doped multiferroic systems (Bi1-xEuxFeO3, x = 0, 0.5, 0.1, 0.15) as well as the valence state of Fe and Eu ions have been investigated combining Mossbauer and x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy techniques. The Eu3+ doping at the Bi site results in better magnetic properties. High temperature Fe-57 Mossbauer data and Fe K-edge XAFS results show that FeO6 octahedron distortions reduce with Eu3+ doping. It is conclusively shown that the observed magnetic properties in BiFeO3 with chemical substitution (Eu) are mainly due to the structural distortions and not due to Fe multiple valence. Eu-151 Mossbauer measurements show that the Eu3+(Bi3+) site is magnetically inactive in BiFeO3.