Evolution of the structural and multiferroic properties of PbFe2/3W1/3O3 ceramics upon Mn-doping

The perovskite system Pb(Fe1-xMnx)(2/3)W1/3O3 (0 <= x <= 1, PFMWO) has been prepared by conventional solid-state reaction under different sintering conditions. Structures and phase composition as well as thermal, magnetic and dielectric properties of the compounds have been systematically investigated experimentally and by first-principles density functional calculations. A clean perovskite phase is established at room temperature for compositions 0 <= x <= 0.4. Rietveld refinements of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction patterns demonstrate that the compounds crystallize in space group Pm-3m (0 <= x <= 0.4). The degree of ordering of the Fe and W/Mn cations was found to depend on the concentration of Mn. First-principles calculations suggest that the structural properties of PFMWO are strongly influenced by the Jahn Teller effect. The PFMWO compounds behave as relaxor ferroelectrics at weak Mn-doping with a dielectric constant that rapidly decreases with increasing Mn content. A low temperature antiferromagnetic G-type order with propagation vector k = (1/2,1/2,1/2) is derived from neutron powder diffraction data for the samples with x <= 0.4. However with increasing doping concentration, the magnetic order is perturbed. First principles calculations show that the dominant exchange coupling is antiferromagnetic and occurs between nearest neighbor Fe atoms. When the system is doped with Mn, a relatively weak ferromagnetic (FM) interaction between Fe and Mn atoms emerges. However, due to the presence of this FM interaction, the correlation length of the magnetic order is greatly shortened already at rather low doping levels. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.