Effects of Fe substitution on structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Erbium ortho-chromite nano polycrystalline material

Abstract Perovskite ErCr 1− x Fe x O 3 polycrystalline samples at nanoscale were synthesized using sol-gel auto-combustion process. The structural studies confirmed that except for x  = 1.0, all the other samples, exhibited single-phase orthorhombic symmetry. The impedance data was collected in the frequency range of 1 Hz–1 MHz, and in the temperature range of 27–600 °C. Room temperature magnetic measurements were performed under maximum applied field of upto 10 kOe. All the samples, except for x  = 1.0 exhibited giant dielectric behaviour (>10 3 ) in the low frequency region at room temperature due to the grain boundary effects (Maxwell-Wogner polarization). Impendence measurements for all the samples indicated the existence of negative temperature coefficient of resistance and non-Debye behaviour. Magnetic hysteresis studies demonstrated a weak ferromagnetic nature for all the samples, except for x  = 1.0 and for x  = 1.0, anti-ferromagnetic behaviour was noticed.