Effects of niobium donor doping on the phase structures and magnetic properties of Fe-doped BaTiO3 ceramics

Magnetic ions such as Fe 3+ are usually doped into ferroelectric oxides in order to obtain multiferroic properties. Fe 3+ as an acceptor dopant (substituted for Ti 4+ ) in BaTiO 3 ceramics usually promotes the formation of the hexagonal phase of BaTiO 3 . Based on the consideration of charge compensation for the acceptor dopant Fe 3+ in Fe-doped BaTiO 3 ceramics, we introduced donor dopants into the ceramics, and investigated the effects of donor doping on the phase structures and magnetic properties of the ceramics. We demonstrated that the phase structures of the Fe-doped BaTiO 3 can be readily controlled by donor doping. In this work, we prepared Fe-doped BaTiO 3 ceramics at a doping concentration of 10 at% (or Ba(Ti 0.9 Fe 0.1 )O 3 ) as a model system, and employed Nb 5+ as the donor dopant for a charge compensation for the acceptor dopant Fe 3+ . It was found that the formation of the hexagonal phase in Ba(Ti 0.9 Fe 0.1 )O 3 was consistently suppressed by Nb 5+ donor doping. The magnetic properties of the Ba(Ti 0.9 Fe 0.1 )O 3 ceramics were strongly influenced by Nb 5+ doping.