Complex dielectric and impedance analysis in a relaxor type ferroelectric/ferrimagnetic magnetoelectric (0.5)PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 +(0.5)CoFe 2 O 4 composite

Abstract Magnetoelectric composite of particular composition (0.5)PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 +(0.5)CoFe 2 O 4 was synthesized by citrate–sol–gel method. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the presence of cubic spinel structure for CoFe 2 O 4 and the coexistence of tetragonal along with a rhombohedral perovskite structure for PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 in the prepared sample. Whereas, scanning electron micrograph (SEM) showed dense and homogeneous distribution of constituent phases. Temperature dependent dielectric measurements showed an abnormal frequency dependent behavior in the prepared composition, which is typically a characteristic of relaxor type materials. The observed behavior is explained in terms of structural disorders which give rise to alteration in the octahedron configuration in the PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 phase that could promote the formation of the polar regions, which changes the dielectric properties of the prepared sample. Impedance spectroscopy was employed to understand the conduction mechanism which is found to be governed by small polaron hopping (SPH) mechanism. Moreover, it was found that the activations energies deduced from the conduction and relaxation process of constituent phases were comparable to each other. These results confirm that electric/dielectric properties and relaxation phenomenon are related to the similar origin.