Rapid liquid phase sintered Mn doped BiFeO3 ceramics with enhanced polarization and weak magnetization

Single-phase BiFe(1-x)MnxO(3) multiferroic ceramics have been synthesized by rapid liquid phase sintering method to study the influence of Mn substitution on their crystal structure, dielectric, magnetic, and ferroelectric behaviors. From XRD analysis it is seen that Mn substitution does not affect the crystal structure of the BiFe(1-x)MnxO(3) system. An enhancement in magnetization was observed for BiFe(1-x)MnxO(3) ceramics. However, the ferooelectric hysteresis loops were not really saturated, we observed a spontaneous polarization of 10.23 mu C/cm(2) under the applied field of 42 kV/cm and remanent polarization of 3.99 mu C/cm(2) for x=0.3 ceramic. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.