Beneficial modification of the properties of multiferroic BiFeO3 by cation substitution

The effects of modifying the well-known multiferroic BiFeO3 by substituting Fe by Mn and Bi by La have been investigated. It is shown that both the substitutions have a favourable effect on the multiferroic properties of BiFeO3. Thus, both BiFe1−x Mn x O3 and Bi1−x La x FeO3 (x =0.0–0.3) show increased magnetization accompanied by hysteresis loops as well as improved dielectric properties. The ferroelectric transition temperature is lower than that of BiFeO3, but is in a more accessible range. In Bi1−x La x FeO3, there is a change in structure at x =0.2.