Structural, optical and magnetic properties of Nd-doped BiFeO3 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Nd-doped BiFeO3 thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on quartz substrate and their structural, optical and magnetic properties have been studied. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that Nd addition caused structural distortion even with 5% of Nd concentration, additional secondary phase appeared in all samples but its intensity was greatly reduced with Nd addition. Doping-induced variations in texture and structure modifying both magnetic and optical properties of BiFeO3 thin films. The energy band gap decreases while the refractive index increases with addition of Nd3+ in BiFeO3 for Bi3+. These variations in energy band gap and refractive index have been explained on the basis of density of states and increase in disorders in the system. All the samples were found to exhibit ferromagnetism at room temperature and the saturation magnetization increases with the increase in structural distortion with addition of Nd. Finally, Nd-doping modifies the physical properties of BiFeO3 in comparison to undoped BiFeO3 thin films. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.