Improved ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and magnetic properties in BiFeO3–(Ba0.85Ca0.15)TiO3 ceramics through Mn addition.

Integrating multiple functions in a single compound is still attractive and necessary to meet the demand of device miniaturization. In this work, we systemically modulate multifunctional properties in the 0.74BiFeO3–0.26(Ba0:85Ca0:15)TiO3–x wt. % MnO2 solid solution with the addition of MnO2. A highly rectangular and saturated polarization–hysteresis (P–E) loop is obtained with a large remanent polarization Pr of 49.5 μC/cm² as x = 0:8. Furthermore, the piezoelectric coefficient d33 also obviously improved with an optimized d33 = 137 pC/N by the introduction of MnO2 due to the grain size effect, the improvement of insulation, and relaxation regulation. With the addition of MnO2, the remanent magnetization Mr increases monotonically because of the enhanced exchange interactions between Fe2+and Fe3+. The results may provide an effective way to explore promising multifunctional materials in BiFeO3-based ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]