Effect of Cr and La doping in the physical properties of Aurivillius Bi5Ti3FeO15

Lead-based materials are the most used piezoelectric ceramics due to their high efficiency. Unfortunately, lead is toxic to humans and other living beings. There is currently an interest in layered ceramics which show a large piezoelectric effect at room temperature. This project studies layered Aurivillius perovskites of the form Bi₄Bi_n-3Ti₃Fe_n-3O_3n+3 where n = 4. There is also interest in these compounds as they might present multiferroicity at close to room temperature. In this work, we study three Aurivillius perovskite compounds Bi₅Ti₃FeO₁₅, Bi₄LaTi­₃FeO₁₅, and Bi₅Ti₃Fe_0.5Cr_0.5O₁₅ to understand the effect of doping the Bi-site with La and the Fe-site with Cr. We have prepared our samples using solid-state methods. Synchrotron X-ray data indicate a joint space group of A21am for all three compositions. Using energy-dispersive X-ray analysis we confirm that our samples are near-stoichiometric. The magnetic properties show an antiferromagnetic nature of the magnetic ground state. In this poster, we will present the results from the structural and magnetic characterization of the three Aurivillius compounds.