Effect of Gd3+ Substitution and Processing Temperature on the Magnetic Properties of BiFeO3.

A systematic investigation is performed to analyze the synergetic effect of Gd3+ substitution and annealing temperature on the fundamental properties of BiFeO3 nanoparticles. Both pure and Gd3+ substituted BiFeO3 nanoparticles were prepared by simple sol-gel method and annealed in two different temperatures (450 °C and 650 °C). The structural transformation of BiFeO3 from rhombohedral to orthorhombic was observed in the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. FESEM images were evident enough in showing the decrease in the agglomeration due to effect of substitution, on the other hand increase in annealing temperature resulted in the growth of particle size. The Gd3+ substituted BiFeO3 prepared at 450 °C possesses higher saturation magnetization value as compared to that of pure BiFeO3 and Gd3+ substituted sample prepared at 650 °C which were analyzed in vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Increased value of dielectric constant was observed in Gd3+ substituted samples prepared at both 450 °C and 650 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]