LAUSR

Abstract The ternary solid solution system of BiFeO 3 -NdFeO 3 -PbTiO 3 (BF-NF-PT) has been synthesized in the form of ceramics by conventional solid reaction method in order to understand multiferroic properties. The introduction of NdFeO 3 into the BiFeO 3 -PbTiO 3 binary system can effectively increase electrical properties. The ternary system exhibits enhanced piezoelectric properties with optimal piezoelectric constants d 33  = 142 pC/N and 135 pC/N, and reduced coercive fields E C  = 32.63 kV/cm and 15.55 kV/cm for 0.52BiFeO 3 -0.08NdFeO 3 -0.40PbTiO 3 and 0.20BiFeO 3 -0.20NdFeO 3 -0.60PbTiO 3 , respectively. The Curie temperature ( T C ) of the BiFeO 3 -NdFeO 3 -PbTiO 3 ceramics varies in the range of 412 °C–260 °C. The magnetic hysteresis loops shows that the ternary system is paramagnetism originated from canting of paramagnetic sublattices in BF-NF-PT, because the exchange interaction between Fe 3+ at the octahedral sites is affected by Nd 3+ ions.