Effects of sintering temperature and composition on dielectric, ferroelectric, and magnetoelectric properties of BaTiO3–BiFeO3 solid solutions

Abstract A series of (1– x )BaTiO 3 – x BiFeO 3 ( (1– x )BT– x BFO) multiferroic ceramics with the composition of x from 0 to 0.07 have been synthesized. The effects of the sintering temperature and composition on the crystal structure, microstructure, dielectric, ferroelectric, and magnetoelectric properties of the ceramics were investigated. With an increase of BFO content, the phase structure of the as prepared ceramics changed from tetragonal to cubic at a threshold value of x = 0.03. The region of the morphotropic phase boundary lies in the composition of x from 0.03 to 0.05, in which the tetragonal and cubic phase coexist. The dielectric constants have been greatly increased from 812 for pure BaTiO 3 to 2667 of the composition 0.96BT–0.04BFO at the 10 kHz, which have been improved about 328%. The ceramics with the composition of x = 0.04 exhibited excellent ferroelectric characteristics, in which the remnant polarization P r is 16.74 μC/cm 2 . The maximum magnetoelectric coefficient is 298.8 mV/cm Oe for the material with x = 0.04 at 900 kHz and 1 kOe.