Manipulation of dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic anomalies in multiferroic, morphotropic phase boundary quenched BiFeO3-0.35PbTiO3 solid solutions

Highlights: • Effect of quenching was study on 0.65BF-0.35PT solid solution. • Significant enhancement was observed for tetragonal phase after quenching. • Ferroelectric properties were improved in quenched sample. • Magneto electric coupling was observed through magnetic measurements. • Quenched sample shows dominant intra grain dielectric relaxation. -- Abstract: The effect of thermal quenching on physical properties of morphotropic phase boundary BiFeO₃-0.35PbTiO₃ composition, composed of Pnma, R3c and P4mm phases, has been investigated in detail. We detected and quantified role of quenching through investigation of magnetic, dielectric and ferroelectric anomalies. Quenching significantly i) enhances the tetragonal phase percentage (hence affects domain structure), ii) reduces domain wall clamping with a large increase in electrical polarization, iii) increases magnetization at the structural phase transition temperature (tunable magneto-electric coupling), iv) magnifies intrinsic property i.e. intra grain relaxation dynamics (which are otherwise suppressed due to the pinning of the defect dipoles), etc. All these findings clearly verify the role of quenching which noticeably enhances multiferroic properties at the well-known morphotropic phase boundary.