Investigation of magnetic, dielectric, optical, and electrical properties of Fe half-doped PrCrO3 perovskite

Conventional solid-state reaction process was adopted to prepare PrFe0.5Cr0.5O3 polycrystalline material. High temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the formation of a single-phase crystallizing in a Pbnm orthorhombic system, with a thermally activated expansion of the crystal lattice. SEM images revealed a morphology consisting of irregularly shaped grains with a size of 0.16-0.40 mu m, while EDX analysis confirms the chemical formula PrFe0.5Cr0.5O3. The infrared (IR) spectrum identified a set of absorption peaks attributed to Cr-O and Fe-O vibrations. Magnetic measurements using Moeurossbauer spectroscopy revealed the onset of a magnetic frustration phenomenon resulting from the random distribution of Fe and Cr atoms. The frequency dependent dielectric study showed a large value of epsilon' in the low-frequency region explained by the Maxwell Wagner model. The dielectric response was associated with heterogeneous conduction in the grains and grain boundaries, as highlighted by impedance spectroscopy, indicating that the material consists of conductive grains separated from each other by poorly conducting grain boundaries. Negative temperature coefficient resistance behavior was also found in the system. High-temperature dielectric measurements were also carried out. The Jonscher's power-law fit to the AC conductivity data confirms that the conduction is dominated by the small polaron hopping mechanism. The optical band gap was evaluated using the Tauc plot and found to be around 2.02 eV, pointing the multifunctionality of this perovskite material.