Bismuth Substituted Zinc Ferrite: A New Room Temperature Multiferroic

Zinc ferrite in nano and bulk form has been studied by many researchers. It has normal spinel structure with Tc of 10 K. It also has been reported that ball milled zinc ferrite shows inversion. In the present work, substitution of Bi3+ ions in zinc ferrite has been attempted. Bismuth substituted zinc ferrite sample with chemical formula ZnBi0.04Fe1.96O4 was synthesized. The variation of dielectric constant with frequency at different temperatures and its variation with temperature at different frequencies are reported in this paper. The maxima observed in the temperature variation curve at about 550 K indicates the multiferroic behaviour of bismuth doped zinc ferrite. Hysteresis loop measurement using SQUID showed the room temperature magnetic behaviour.