Structural, dielectric, semiconducting and optical properties of high-energy ball milled YFeO3 nano-particles

In this work, we report the effects of calcination temperature on structural, dielectric, semiconducting and optical properties of YFeO3 nanoparticles prepared by a high energy ball milling process. The structural analysis of the X-ray diffraction data shows that YFeO3 exists in orthorhombic as well as in hexagonal mixed-phase states. The Rietveld analysis confirms that orthorhombic YFeO3 crystallizes into Pnma space group. The optical band gap of YFeO3 reduces from 1.96 eV to 1.68 eV with increasing the calcination temperature of the YFeO3 sample. The bandgap reducing effect might be attributed to the increased crystallite size and decreased lattice strain which is confirmed by the Williamson-Hall plot method. The obtained low bandgap YFeO3 ceramic may provide a new possibility to develop eco-friendly Ferroelectric photovoltaic devices.