PbTi1-xPdxO3: A New Room-temperature Magnetoelectric Multiferroic Device Material

TL;DR

This paper introduces PbTi1-xPdxO3 as a new room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic material with enhanced piezoelectric properties, addressing limitations of BiFeO3 by exploring Pd substitution effects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive study of PbTi1-xPdxO3, revealing its structural, dielectric, and magnetic properties, and highlights the novelty of Pd incorporation into perovskite oxides.

Findings

Pd substitution affects dielectric and magnetic properties.

Presence of minor phases like PdO, PbPdO2, Pd3Pb.

Potential for stronger piezoelectric response than BiFeO3.

Abstract

There have been a large number of papers on bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) over the past few years, trying to exploit its room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic properties. Although these are attractive, BiFeO3 is not the ideal multiferroic, due to weak magnetization and the difficulty in limiting leakage currents. Thus there is an ongoing search for alternatives, including such materials as gallium ferrite (GaFeO3). In the present work we report a comprehensive study of the perovskite PbTi1-xPdxO3 with 0 < x < 0.3. Our study includes dielectric, impedance and magnetization measurements, conductivity analysis and study of crystallographic phases present in the samples with special attention paid to minor phases, identified as PdO, PbPdO2, and Pd3Pb. The work is remarkable in two ways: Pd is difficult to substitute into ABO3 perovskite oxides (where it might be useful for catalysis), and Pd is magnetic under only unusual conditions (under strain or internal electric fields). The new material, as a PZT derivative, is expected to have much stronger piezoelectric properties than BiFeO3.