Crystal structure and spontaneous magnetism of BiFeO3 powder synthesized by hydrothermal method.
Single-phase BiFeO3 powder was successively synthesized by a low-temperature hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results showed that BiFeO3 powder had several hundred nanometers to micrometer-sized particles with a broad size distribution. BiFeO3 powder showed weak-ferromagnetic behavior with a small magnetization value (Ms approximately 20 memu/g) at room temperature. Rietveld refinement results for the crystal structure show the displacive disorder of the Fe-site(6a); the Fe-site(6a) splits into two pairs, Fe(1) and Fe(2) displaced by 0.9 angstroms from each other and these sites are partially occupied. Hence the O-site(18b) also splits into the two partially occupied sites forming a distorted FeO6 octahedras. The weak ferromagnetism observed in the hydrothermal BFO powder is ascribed to the displacive disorder of FeO6 octahedras resulting in an incomplete counterbalance between the antiferromagnetic sublattices of the Fe-ions.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
Seung Ho
SH
Han
Kyoung Sun
KS
Kim
Ho Gi
HG
Kim
Hyeung-Gyu
HG
Lee
Hyung-Won
HW
Kang
Chae Il
CI
Cheon
Jeong Seog
JS
Kim