Enhanced multiferroic properties of dense Bi₄LaTi₃FeO₁₅ ceramics of layered Aurivillius structure prepared by hot-press sintering

Bi₄LaTi₃FeO₁₅ (BLTF) multiferroic ceramics of four-layered Aurivillius structure were successfully synthesized by hot-press sintering via inserting magnetic LaFeO₃ into ferroelectric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ matrix. The BLTF ceramics are very dense and consist mainly of plate-like grains. The ceramics show saturated ferroelectric loops with a remanent polarization 2P_r of 32.3 µC/cm² and a coercive field 2E_c of 188 kV/cm. Their permittivity and dissipation factor are about 245 and 0.0228 at 100 kHz. The leakage current density is 1.6 × 10⁻⁵ A/cm² at the applied electric field of 170 kV/cm. The room temperature saturation magnetization value of the BLTF ceramics is about 0.088 emu/g. Compared to the BLTF ceramics prepared by pressureless sintering, the ferroelectric, dielectric and magnetic properties of the present BLTF ceramics are enhanced obviously. This work gives a new pathway for synthesing high-performance room-temperature multiferroic ceramics.