Ferromagnetism in nanoscale BiFeO3

Abstract

A remarkably high saturation magnetization of ~0.4mu_B/Fe along with room temperature ferromagnetic hysteresis loop has been observed in nanoscale (4-40 nm) multiferroic BiFeO_3 which in bulk form exhibits weak magnetization (~0.02mu_B/Fe) and an antiferromagnetic order. The magnetic hysteresis loops, however, exhibit exchange bias as well as vertical asymmetry which could be because of spin pinning at the boundaries between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains. Interestingly, like in bulk BiFeO_3, both the calorimetric and dielectric permittivity data in nanoscale BiFeO_3 exhibit characteristic features at the magnetic transition point. These features establish formation of a true ferromagnetic-ferroelectric system with a coupling between the respective order parameters in nanoscale BiFeO_3.

13 pages including 4 figures; pdf only; submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett

References in corpus (1)

• Volume contraction at the Jahn-Teller transition of LaMnO${}_3$

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Multiferroicity, The coupling between magnetic and polarization
• Multiferroic coupling in nanoscale BiFeO3
• Particle size dependence of magnetization and non-centrosymmetry in nanoscale BiFeO3
• Size effects in multiferroic BiFeO3 nanodots: A first-principles-based study
• In-plane Dielectric and Magnetoelectric Studies of BiFeO3
• Magnetic Properties of Bismuth Ferrite Nanopowder Obtained by Mechanochemical Synthesis
• Evidence of spin reorientation transition below 150 K from magnetic force microscopy in a ferromagnetic BiFeO${}_3$ thin film
• Charge-transfer-driven enhanced room-temperature ferromagnetism in BiFeO${}_3$/Ag nanocomposite