Liquid-phase sintered bismuth ferrite multiferroics and their giant dielectric constant

Abstract

Rapid liquid-phase sintering method has been modified and used to synthesize Bi1-xLaxFeO3-δ compositions (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5). The temperature and sintering procedures to obtain stable single-phase samples have been de- fined. This provides a significant reduction in the synthesis time, which is especially important for mass pro- duction. Furthermore, giant dielectric constants have been observed in Bi1-xLaxFeO3-δ compositions, the values of which are one order of magnitude larger than those of similar Bi-based multiferroics obtained by conventional methods. It potentially makes them one of the most promising materials for modern technological applications.