Synthesis of bismuth ferrite nanopowder doped with erbium ions

Abstract

The potential for the practical application of bismuth ferrite (BFO) in information storage, microelectronic, and spintronic devices and in medical sensors of various purpose is limited by the presence of a spin cycloid. Its destruction, including destruction due to doping with rare earth elements and the transfer of BFO to a nanoscale state, contributes to the occurrence of ferromagnetism and the manifestation of the magnetoelectric effect. The study was aimed at the synthesis of bismuth ferrite nanopowder doped with erbium ions.By spray pyrolysis at a temperature of 760 °C, we synthesised BFO samples with a nominal degree of doping with erbium ions from 0.05 to 0.20. The data of X-ray diffraction analysis show that there is a small amount of Bi25FeO39 and Bi2Fe4O9 in the doped samples.The shift of the BFO reflections on diffraction patterns towards larger 2q angles is representative of the incorporation of erbium ions into the crystal lattice of BiFeO3. The morphological characteristics of the samples were determined using transmission electron microscopy. According to the data of electron probe X-Ray microanalysis, the real composition of the doped ErxBi1-xFeO3 samples is very close to the nominal.The particles of ErxBi1-xFeO3 powders synthesised by spray pyrolysis have a nearly spherical shape, the particle-size distribution is in the range of 5–300 nm, the predominant number of particles have a size in the range of 50-200 nm, and the agglomeration is weak. The decrease in the crystal lattice parameters and the unit cell volume of ErxBi1-xFeO3 and an increase in the degree of doping with erbium ions confirm the incorporation of Er3+ into the BFO crystal lattice to the bismuth position.