Processing and properties of Yb-doped BiFeO3 ceramics

The authors prepared Yb-doped bismuth iron oxide ceramics (Bi1-xYbxFeO3, with 0 <= x <= 0.20) by rapid liquid phase sintering method and investigated the material's structures and electrical properties. The x-ray diffraction measurements showed that the doping of Yb has induced noticeable lattice distortion in the ceramics, and a largest distortion was observed when the concentration of Yb was 15%. By doping electrical resistivity, ferroelectric and dielectric properties of the ceramics were improved. Among all samples, BiFeO3 doped with 15% Yb was found to have the smallest leakage current density (< 10(-7) A/cm(2)) and the largest remnant polarization (8.5 mu C/cm(2)).