Influence of chromium doping on structural, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties of bismuth ferrite nanofibers

Bismuth ferrite (BFO) is a multiferroic material that has gained significant interest in recent years due to its unique ferroelectric and magnetic properties. Continued research efforts aim to overcome the current challenges and fully realize its potential in practical applications. The present work reveals structural, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties of Cr-doped BFO nanofibers obtained through electrospinning. The Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of Cr-doped BFO nanofibers confirms the distorted rhombohedral-hexagonal perovskite structure belonging to the R3c space group. Furthermore, Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) micrographs show the reduction in the diameter of Cr-doped BFO nanofibers. The high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) micrographs confirmed the high crystallinity nature of the synthesized fibers. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis manifests the presence of Fe³⁺ ions and oxygen vacancies within the Cr-doped BFO nanofibers. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements revealed that the saturation magnetization and remanent magnetization values increased with increasing Cr concentration. The 10% Cr-doped BFO nanofibers show optimum saturation and remanent magnetization values of 2.96 emu/g and 0.65 emu/g, respectively. From polarization vs electric field loops (PE loop) measurement, it was observed that the saturation and remanent polarization values increased with increasing Cr concentration compared with those of undoped BFO nanofibers. The 10% Cr-doped BFO nanofibers have maximum remanent and saturation polarization values of 0.163 μC/cm² and 0.251 μC/cm², respectively. This study suggests an efficient approach to Cr-doped BFO nanofibers for multiferroic memory devices.