Multiferroic properties of Ba2+-Ti4+ co-doped YFeO3 ceramics

The search for multiferroic materials with ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties at room temperature continues to be driven by the prospect of new devices. In this paper, Ba2+-Ti4+ co-doped Y1-x(Ba0.5Ti0.5)xFeO3 were prepared by a traditional solid-state reaction method. The ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism of the co-doped ceramics have been enhanced simultaneously with the maximum polarization of 0.48 μC/cm2 and the maximum magnetization of 3.25 emu/g, the switched charge density (0.26 μC/cm2) measured by PUND tests indicating the intrinsic and switchable remanent polarization. The increase of Fe2+ content (increased to 28 % with the increase of doping content) caused by Ba2+-Ti4+ co-doping destroys the antiferromagnetic ground state, and the doping strategy enlarges the tilt angle of oxygen octahedron from 144.93° to 148.63°. The magnetic domain switches caused by the external electric field were directly observed by magnetic force microscopy, indicating the modulation of magnetic domain by polarization at room temperature. This work may provide useful information for the structural design and performance improvement of multiferroic materials. •The ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism of YFeO3-based ceramics have been enhanced simultaneously by Ba2+-Ti4+ co-doping strategy.•The ferroelectricity is closely related to the lattice distortion induced by defect dipoles such as Ba2+-Ti4+ and Fe2+-VÖ (oxygen vacancy) pairs.•The increase of Fe2+ content caused by Ba2+-Ti4+ co-doping destroys the antiferromagnetic ground state, and enlarges the tilt angle of oxygen octahedron.•Magnetoelectric coupling is directly observed by magnetic domain switching at electric field.