Study of weak ferromagnetism in polycrystalline multiferroic Eu doped bismuth ferrite

Room temperature spontaneous magnetization and dielectric anomaly at Neel temperature are observed in 15% Eu doped bismuth ferrite indicating the multiferroic nature of the sample. With 15% Eu doping structural transformation from rhombohedral to triclinic is observed. Fe(3+) and Eu(3+) oxidation states are observed from (57)Fe and (151)Eu Mossbauer measurements, respectively. The high field (57)Fe Mossbauer spectrum in longitudinal geometry shows an enhancement in the intensity of lines corresponding to Delta m=0 transitions, i.e., second and fifth lines in six line pattern. This observation suggests that the origin of spontaneous magnetization is due to weak ferromagnetism of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya type.