Quantitative phase separation in multiferroic Bi{sub 0.88}Sm{sub 0.12}FeO{sub 3} ceramics via piezoresponse force microscopy
- Institute of Natural Sciences, Ural Federal University, 620000 Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation)
- Electronic Ceramics Department, Jozef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia)
- Institute for Materials Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, D-45141, Essen (Germany)
BiFeO{sub 3} (BFO) is a classical multiferroic material with both ferroelectric and magnetic ordering at room temperature. Doping of this material with rare-earth oxides was found to be an efficient way to enhance the otherwise low piezoelectric response of unmodified BFO ceramics. In this work, we studied two types of bulk Sm-modified BFO ceramics with compositions close to the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) prepared by different solid-state processing methods. In both samples, coexistence of polar R3c and antipolar P{sub bam} phases was detected by conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD); the non-polar P{sub nma} or P{sub bnm} phase also has potential to be present due to the compositional proximity to the polar-to-non-polar phase boundary. Two approaches to separate the phases based on the piezoresponse force microscopy measurements have been proposed. The obtained fractions of the polar and non-polar/anti-polar phases were close to those determined by quantitative XRD analysis. The results thus reveal a useful method for quantitative determination of the phase composition in multi-phase ceramic systems, including the technologically most important MPB systems.
- OSTI ID:
- 22494744
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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