Investigation of Structural, Ferroelectric, and Magnetic Properties of La-Doped LuFeO3 Nanoparticles

LuFeO3 a new room temperature multiferroic material exists in hexagonal and orthorhombic phases. In this work, La doping is used to tune the phase fraction and investigate its effect on multiferroic properties. Lu(1-x)LaxFeO3 nanoparticles with x = 0 to 0.25 are synthesized using wet chemical methods. The structural parameters including phase fraction are obtained through detailed Rietveld refinement. The dielectric properties seem to sensitively depend on the phase fraction of polar hexagonal phase whereas the magnetic properties show an anomalous increase in coercivity with an increase in temperature. Presence of room temperature ferroelectric and magnetic hysteresis loops establishes La-doped LuFeO3 as a potential multiferroic material.