Magnetic properties of La and (La, Zr) doped BiFeO3 ceramics

Bi_0.9La_0.1FeO₃ (BLF) and Bi_0.9La_0.1Fe_0.98Zr_0.02O₃ (BLFZ) ceramics were synthesized by conventional solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction studies and Rietveld refinements indicated that both of the samples possessed rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure. The average grain size of BLFZ (~700 nm) was greatly reduced in comparison with BLF (~6 μm). The remanent magnetization of BLFZ was greatly enhanced compared with BLF. The enhancement of remanent magnetization was attributed to the collapse of the spiral spin structure. Both samples showed exchange bias. The possible reason for the appearance of exchange bias was attributed to the inhomogeneity in doping. The measurements of magnetization as a function of temperature indicated that BLF and BLFZ had almost the same magnetic transition temperature (~355 °C).