Effects of Fe substitution on structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Erbium ortho-chromite nano polycrystalline material

a) Cole-Cole plot of ErCr1−xFexO3 at RT, b) M-H Hysteresis of ECFO at RT, up to 10,000 Oe field. [Display omitted] •Sol-gel auto-combustion process was employed to prepare ErCr1−xFexO3 (ECFO) perovskite nanoparticles.•Colossal dielectric constant (ε'>103) and relaxor ferroelectric behavior observed.•M-H hysteresis demonstrated weak ferromagnetic behaviour.•ECFO seems to be a potential candidate for dielectric resonator, colossal dielectric capacitors, memories. Perovskite ErCr1−xFexO3 polycrystalline samples at nanoscale were synthesized using sol-gel auto-combustion process. The structural studies confirmed that except for x = 1.0, all the other samples, exhibited single-phase orthorhombic symmetry. The impedance data was collected in the frequency range of 1 Hz–1 MHz, and in the temperature range of 27–600 °C. Room temperature magnetic measurements were performed under maximum applied field of upto 10 kOe. All the samples, except for x = 1.0 exhibited giant dielectric behaviour (>103) in the low frequency region at room temperature due to the grain boundary effects (Maxwell-Wogner polarization). Impendence measurements for all the samples indicated the existence of negative temperature coefficient of resistance and non-Debye behaviour. Magnetic hysteresis studies demonstrated a weak ferromagnetic nature for all the samples, except for x = 1.0 and for x = 1.0, anti-ferromagnetic behaviour was noticed.