Effect of Ln (Ln = La, Pr) and Co co-doped on the magnetic and ferroelectric properties of BiFeO3 nanoparticles

Single-phase Bi0.95Ln0.05Fe0.95Co0.05O3 (Ln=La, Pr) nanoparticles were prepared by sol–gel method. The impurity phase was effectively suppressed, which was confirmed from XRD measurements. Compared with BiFeO3 (BFO) and BiFe0.95Co0.05O3 prepared under the similar conditions, the magnetic properties of the two co-doped samples were significantly enhanced. Raman results have shown that La and Co co-doping induced significant structure distortion of Fe–O bonds, which may result in a higher value of saturate magnetization, 0.535 emu/g. In addition, the co-doping of La and Co into BFO can reduce the leakage current and enhance the ferroelectric properties.