Correlation between structural, electrical and magnetic properties of GdMnO3 bulk ceramics

This paper reports the effect of sintering temperature on ferroelectric properties of GdMnO3 (GMO) bulk ceramics at room temperature prepared by the conventional solid state reaction route following slow step sintering schedule. Ferroelectric hysteresis loop as well as sharp dielectric anomaly in pure (99.999%) GMO sintered ceramics has been clearly observed. Samples sintered at 1350 degrees C become orthorhombic with Pbnm space group and showed frequency independent sharp dielectric anomalies at 373 K and a square type of novel ferroelectric hysteresis loop was observed at room temperature. Interestingly, dielectric anomalies and ferroelectric behavior were observed to be dependent upon sintering temperature of GdMnO3. Room temperature dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) value at different frequencies is observed to be abnormally high. The magnetic field and temperature dependent magnetization show antiferromagnetic behavior at 40 K for both 1350 degrees C and 1700 degrees C sintered GMO. Present findings showed the possibility of application of GdMnO3 at room temperature as multifunctional materials. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.