Sr and Mn co-doped sol-gel derived BiFeO3 ceramics with enhanced magnetism and reduced leakage current

In this manuscript, we report the effect of Sr and Mn doping on the electrical and magnetic characteristics of BiFeO3 nanoparticles, synthesized by sol-gel technique. While powder diffraction analysis of the samples suggested absence of any structural distortion in both Sr-doped and Sr and Mn co-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles, Rietveld refinement of the data suggested that the unit cell volume decreases with doping. Room temperature Raman studies of the samples confirmed the incorporation of Sr and Mn in BiFeO3. It was seen that Sr doping of BiFeO3 showed substantial reduction in the leakage current whilst co-doping with Sr and Mn led to lower reduction in the leakage current through offering better performance over undoped BiFeO3, due to changes brought in the defect chemistry upon doping. Additionally, Sr and Mn co-doped BiFeO3 samples exhibit enhanced magnetization in comparison to undoped and Sr doped BiFeO3, possibly due to interruptions in the spin cycloid of BiFeO3.