Co-existence of tetragonal and monoclinic phases and multiferroic properties for x ≤ 0.30 in the (1 - x)Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3-(x)BiFeO3 system.

Compositions with x ≤ 0.30 in the system (1 - x)Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3-(x)BiFeO3 were synthesized by sol-gel method. Rietveld analysis of X-ray diffraction data reveals tetragonal structure (P4mm) for x ≤ 0.05 and monoclinic (Cm) phase along with the existence of tetragonal phase for 0.10 ≤ x ≤ 0.25 and monoclinic phase for x = 0.30. Transformation of E(2TO) and E + B1 vibrational modes in the range 210-250 cm-1 (present for x ≤ 0.25) into A' + A" modes at ~236 cm-1 for x = 0.30, and occurrence of new vibrational modes A' and A" in Raman spectra for x ≥ 0.10 unambiguously support the presence of monoclinic phase. Occurrence of remnant polarisation and enhanced magnetization with concentration of BiFeO3 indicates superior multiferroic properties. Variation of magneto-capacitance with applied magnetic field is a strong evidence of magneto-electric multiferroic coupling in these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]