Tailoring of dielectric, ferroelectric, and optical properties of Bi0.99Nd0.1Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite at room temperature

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry communications Vol. 165; p. 112526
• Main Authors: Sharma, Rikky, Basandrai, Deepak, Sona Maji, Partha, Mukherjee, Rupam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.07.2024
• Subjects: Bandgap; Composite; Impurity phase; Multiferroic; Polarization; Polarization; Composite; Impurity phase; Multiferroic; Bandgap
• ISSN: 1387-7003; 1879-0259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.inoche.2024.112526

[Display omitted] •An increase in the dielectric constant and a decrease in dielectric losses are indicative of improved dielectric characteristics. ZnO is an excellent option for creating composite systems, as indicated by the measurement of the conductivity’s AC and DC parts, which also shows that the inclusion of ZnO has not harmed the system’s overall stability.•An equivalent circuit is drawn from the observed inquest plot. The analysis reveals the presence of large resistance offered by a composite maximum of 46.8 KΩ.•The ferroelectric investigation reveals that the addition of ZnO has significantly improved the overall polarization with a maximum P = 22 μc/cm2. The addition of ZnO has also influenced the optoelectronic properties with a reduced band gap. We observe the fine-tuning of electrical and optical properties in a composite nanoparticle system consisting of varying weight fractions of semiconducting ZnO grains (x) embedded into Nd-doped multiferroic Bi0.99Nd0.1Fe2O3 matrix and annealed at 500 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) is used to validate the phase which further reveals the existence of cubic ZnO phases and rhombohedral BFO with some impurity phases. With the aid of SEM and EDX, the morphological and elemental composition of grains are found to be affected by ZnO nanoparticles. To understand the nature of dielectric response impedance analysis is performed which reveals the presence of large resistance offered by a composite maximum of 46.8 KΩ at x = 10 %. The enhancement in dielectric constant and dielectric loss is observed at higher concentrations for (x = 5 %). The Ferroelectric investigation shows that the maximum polarization achieved at low frequency for x = 10 % is 22.13 μc/cm2. The optical band gap in the composite sample exhibits significant dependence on ZnO concentrations, thus indicating potential application in optoelectronic devices.