Structural properties of Bi1-xLaxFeO3 studied by micro-Raman scattering

This paper reports that La-doped BiFeO3 （Bil-xLaxFeO3, x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0） were studied by using micro-Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction （XRD）. The XRD patterns indicate that the structure of Bi1-xLaxFeO3 changes from rhombohedral BiFeO3 to orthorhombic LaFeO3. The results of Raman spectroscopy show good agreement with the XRD results. Strikingly, the phonon peak at around 610 cm^-1 and the two-phonon peaks in the high frequency range exist in all compounds and enhance with increasing La substitution. The increasing intensity of the 610 cm-1 peak is attributed to the changes in the FeO6 octahedron during the rhombohedral-orthorhombic phase transition. The enhancements of the two-phonon peaks are associated with the breakdown of the cycloid spin configuration with the appearance of the orthorhombic structure. These results indicate the existence of strong spin phonon coupling in Bi1-xLaxFeO3, which may provide useful information for understanding the effects of La content on the structural and magnetic properties of Bi1 -xLaxFeO3.