Samarium modified strontium bismuth niobate: Synthesis and ferroelectro-magnetic property evaluation

SrBi2Nb2O9 (SBN) is an attractive ferroelectric material that is being considered in non-volatile random access memory cells. This study reports the effects of doping SBN at the Bi sites by the rare earth element Sm in the concentration range corresponding to x = 0–1 in the formula of SrBi2−xSmxNb2O9. A solid-state double sintering method is adopted to synthesize and sinter the compounds starting from raw materials. It is shown that the crystal structure of SBN is retained but with slight changes to the lattice parameter. The sintered density, electric polarization and magnetization are enhanced by Sm addition. This system could be considered ferroelectromagnetic in nature.