Effects of niobium donor doping on the phase structures and magnetic properties of Fe-doped BaTiO3 ceramics

Magnetic ions such as Fe3+ are usually doped into ferroelectric oxides in order to obtain multiferroic properties. Fe3+ as an acceptor dopant (substituted for Ti4+) in BaTiO3 ceramics usually promotes the formation of the hexagonal phase of BaTiO3. Based on the consideration of charge compensation for the acceptor dopant Fe3+ in Fe-doped BaTiO3 ceramics, we introduced donor dopants into the ceramics, and investigated the effects of donor doping on the phase structures and magnetic properties of the ceramics. We demonstrated that the phase structures of the Fe-doped BaTiO3 can be readily controlled by donor doping. In this work, we prepared Fe-doped BaTiO3 ceramics at a doping concentration of 10 at% (or Ba(Ti0.9Fe0.1)O-3) as a model system, and employed Nb5+ as the donor dopant for a charge compensation for the acceptor dopant Fe3+. It was found that the formation of the hexagonal phase in Ba(Ti0.9Fe0.1)O-3 was consistently suppressed by Nb5+ donor doping. The magnetic properties of the Ba(Ti0.9Fe0.1)O-3 ceramics were strongly influenced by Nb5+ doping. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.