Effect of La substitution on the structural, optical, ferroelectric, and electrical properties of BiFeO3
摘要
Bi1-xLaxFeO3 (x = 0.00–0.50) compounds were made and their structural, ferroelectric, optical and impedance characteristics were investigated. Structural analysis using Rietveld refinement revealed that structure with an orthorhombic Pnma space group was emerged at the expense of rhombohedral R3c structure with increasing La content. UV–visible spectroscopy measurements showed an increase in the optical band gap between 2.03 and 2.18 eV when x changes from 0 to 0.50. The Fourier transform infrared radiation measurements showed two prominent absorption bands that were seen at about 435 and 535 cm−1, which corresponded to the bending and stretching vibrations of the Fe–O bonds in the FeO6 octahedral unit, respectively. The polarization measurements demonstrated that ferroelectric properties were enhanced for the x = 0.10 compound but declined for higher values of x. The impedance measurements evidenced improved insulating character with the La substitution. The grain and grain resistance of the compounds were extracted using two parallel RC circuit models. The impedance measurements revealed that the compounds displayed a negative temperature coefficient of resistance character. The ac conductivity studies indicated that the conductivity of the substituted compounds reduced with the substitution.