Investigation of magnetic and ferroelectric properties along with the magnetoelectric coupling behavior for asserting a room temperature bi-phase composite as multiferroics

Various composites of nominal composition (1-x)Ba_0.95Ca_0.05TiO₃?+?xLi_0.1Cu_0.1Co_0.1Zn_0.6Fe_2.1O₄ have been prepared and studied thoroughly. X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement confirmed the presence of Ba_0.95Ca_0.05TiO₃ and Li_0.1Cu_0.1Co_0.1Zn_0.6Fe_2.1O₄ phases in the composites. The microstructures have been investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy. Temperature dependent dielectric constant shows two peaks, one is at 150 °C and another at 270 °C for x?=?0.10 composite which resembles the characteristic ferroelectric and ferromagnetic transition peaks. A gradual progression of ferro-para electric transition towards room temperature is observed with doping. The non-Debye type dipole relaxations have been found. The linearity in the log(σ_AC) vs. log(ω) plots indicate that conduction is due to small polaron hopping. The real part of initial permeability increases with growing ferrite concentration but the cut-off frequency decreases. The magnetic property is also enhanced with doping content. The typical ferroelectric hysteresis loops have also seen with the addition of Li_0.1Cu_0.1Co_0.1Zn_0.6Fe_2.1O₄ up to x?=?0.40. The impedance values are found to decreases in the Nyquist plots. The magnetoelectric voltage coefficient is obtained 287?×?10³ V/mT for x?=?0.15 at room temprrature. We found both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric hysteresis loops at room temperature. So, it confirms that the composites exhibit room temperature multiferroicity. This type of composites offers variety of opportunity for multifunctional devices application like hetero-structured read / write memory devices, switching devices and magnetic field sensing devices.