The multiferroic properties of Bi Fe O3-based ceramics were improved through optimizing their sintering method and doping with certain rare earth elements in pure Bi Fe O3. Some methods, especially liquid-phase sintering method has largely decreased the densities of oxygen vacancies and Fe2in Bi Fe O3-based ceramics, and thus their resistivity became high enough to measure the saturated polarization and the large piezoelectric d33 coefficient under the high electric field of [150 k V/cm. Besides,multiferroic properties were improved through the rare earth elements' doping in pure Bi Fe O3. Magnetization commonly increases with the proportional increase of Nd,La, Sm and Dy contents up to *30 %, while ferroelectric phase can transform to paraelectric phase at a certain proportion. An improved magnetoelectric coupling was often observed at ferroelectric phase with a relatively large proportion. Besides, an enhanced piezoelectric coefficient is expected in Bi Fe O3-based ceramics with morphotropic phase boundaries as they are already observed in thin epitaxial Bi Fe O3 films.
Ahmad HussainXijun XuGuoliang YuanYiping WangYing YangJiang YinJunming LiuZhiguo Liu
