Effect of octahedron tilt on the structure and magnetic properties of bismuth ferrite

Multiferroic BiFeO3-based ceramics were synthesized using the rapid liquid-phase sintering method. The rare-earth ion (Sm3+, Gd3+, Y3+) doping causes structural distortion without changing the intrinsic rhombohedral perovskite structure. Raman analysis shows that the effect of doping on E modes is greater than A1 modes, and the microstructure of FeO6 octahedron can be regulated by ion doping. A-site trivalent ion doped ceramics exhibit improved magnetism compared with pure BiFeO3 ceramic, which originated from the suppressed spiral spin structure of Fe ions. The tilt of FeO6 octahedron as a typical structure instability causes the anomalous change of the imaginary part of permittivity at high frequency, and doped ceramics exhibit natural resonance around 16–17 GHz.