Self-Assembled Room Temperature Multiferroic BiFeO3-LiFe5O8 Nanocomposites
Abstract
Multiferroic materials have driven significant research interest due to their promising technological potential. Developing new room-temperature multiferroics and understanding their fundamental properties are important to reveal unanticipated physical phenomena and potential applications. Here, a new room temperature multiferroic nanocomposite comprised of an ordered ferrimagnetic spinel LiFe5O8 (LFO) and a ferroelectric perovskite BiFeO3 (BFO) is presented. We observed that lithium (Li)-doping in BFO favors the formation of LFO spinel as a secondary phase during the synthesis of LixBi1-xFeO3 nanoceramics. Multimodal functional and chemical imaging methods are used to map the relationship between doping-induced phase separation and local ferroic properties in both the BFO-LFO composite ceramics and self-assembled nanocomposite thin films. The energetics of phase separation in Li doped BFO and the formation of BFO-LFO composites is supported by first principles calculations. These findings shed light on Li-ion role in the formation of a functionally important room temperature multiferroic and open a new approach in the synthesis of light element doped nanocomposites.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- August 2019
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1908.04825
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1908.04825
- Bibcode:
- 2019arXiv190804825S
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Materials Science;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Physics - Applied Physics;
- Quantum Physics