A way to enhance the magnetic moment of multiferroic bismuth ferrite

Transition metals, including Co, Cr, Ni and Mn, were doped into multiferroic Bi0.8La0.2Nb0.01Fe0.99O3 samples that were fabricated by a solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction results show that only the Mn-doped sample did not contain any impurity phases, while the other transition metal dopants destroyed the phase stability of the pure Bi0.8La0.2Nb0.01Fe0.99O3 phase and caused the formation of second phases. All the transition metal doped Bi0.8La0.2Nb0.01Fe0.99O3 samples show significant enhancement in their magnetic moment at room temperature in comparison with the BiFeO3 and Bi0.8La0.2Nb0.01Fe0.99O3 samples without transition metal doping. This is explained by the formation of local ferrimagnetic ordering or ferromagnetic ordering in the transition metal doped Bi0.8La0.2Nb0.01Fe0.99O3, according to the electron configurations of the dopant transition metal ions.