Structural, electric and magnetic properties of Dy and Mn co-doped BiFeO3 thin films

Pure BiFeO3 (BFO), Dy-doped BiFeO3 (BDFO) and Dy-Mn co-doped BiFeO3 (BDFMO) thin films were successfully prepared on SnO2: F (FTO)/glass substrates by a sol-gel method. The effects of Dy-doping and Dy-Mn co-doping on the crystal structure, dielectric, ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties of the BFO thin films were studied. In the Dy-doped and Dy-Mn co-doped BFO thin films, a structural transition from the trigonal structure (R3c:H) to the trigonal structure (R3m:R) was demonstrated by XRD, Rietveld refinement and Raman spectra analyses. It's obvious that the multiferroic properties of the BDFMO thin film were improved in comparison with the BFO thin film. Furthermore, a high enhancement in multiferroic properties with a giant remanent polarization (P-r=96.5 mu C/cm(2)) and a relative large saturation magnetization (M-s=8.70 emu/cm(3)) was observed in the BDFMO thin films. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.