Ferroelectric and Electrical Properties Optimization of Mg-doped BiFeO3 Flexible Multiferroic Films

Bi1-xMgxFeO3 (BMFO, x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08) multiferroic films were directly synthesized on flexible stainless steel (FSS), save the bottom electrode process, by means of sol–gel spin-coating technology. The effects of different bending conditions on ferroelectric, dielectric and leakage-current properties of BMFO films were investigated. The leakage-current densities of BiFeO3 (BFO, x = 0) and BMFO (x = 0.06) films were 5.86 × 10−4 and 3.73 × 10−7 A/cm2, which shows that the BMFO (x = 0.06) has more than three orders of magnitude lower than that of BFO film. The residual polarization (2 Pr) can be enhanced from 120 to 140 μC/cm2. The proper doping of Mg in BiFeO3 film could provide an effective method for reducing the leakage-current values as well as boosting the ferroelectric properties. In this study, the leakage-current mechanism of low electric field and high electric field of BMFO film is analyzed and established. In addition, the flexible BMFO film maintains practical ferroelectric and leakage-current properties at retention time of 106 s under different symmetry bending conditions. These results indicate that the BFMO film will be very practical in opto-electronic and storage device applications.

Influence of Crystallization Temperature on Structural, Ferroelectric, and Ferromagnetic Properties of Lead-Free Bi0.5(Na0.8K0.2)0.5TiO3 Multiferroic Films

Lead-free Bi0.5(Na0.8K0.2)0.5TiO3 (abbreviated as BNKT) films have been synthesized via a sol-gel technique on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates, and the dependence of the physical properties in BNKT films were investigated as a function of the crystallization temperature. The BNKT films were annealed at different temperatures (600, 650, 700, and 750°C) for 60 min in the air. The results of this study showed that the optimal crystallization temperature is 700°C. At this, the BNKT films exhibited a single perovskite phase structure and high-dense surface. Besides, the remanent (Pr) and maximum (Pm) polarization reached their highest values of 9.2 µC/cm2 and 30.6 µC/cm2, respectively. All the films showed a weak ferromagnetic behavior with the maximum saturated magnetization (Ms) of 2.1 emu/cm3. These values are equivalent to the highest Pr and Pm values in previous reports on lead-free films.

Temperature and frequency dependence of the dielectric and piezoelectric response of P(VDF–TrFE)/CoFe2O4 magnetoelectric composites

CoFe2O4 nanoparticles embedded in polyvinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene (P(VDF–TrFE)) matrix show suit­able properties for practical applications as piezoelectric and magnetoelectric transducers. The knowledge about the dielectric and electromechanical responses of the multiferroic films in a broad frequency and temperature range is essential for applicability. The purpose of this work is to investigate the dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of multiferroic composites based on P(VDF–TrFE) as a host matrix and CoFe2O4 as a magnetic filler. Free-standing films with a different concentration of the filler were investigated. The polarization switching was demonstrated for all the compositions. The polarization displacement hysteresis was achieved at different temperatures. The piezoelectric coefficient d33 is not affected by different concentration of ferrite. On the other hand, the composition with the largest weight % of CoFe2O4 shows higher coercive fields which is not favourable for applications. This indicates that the optimal content of the filler must be determined and taken into account when optimizing both ferroelectric and magnetoelectric properties.