Multifunctional behaviour of mesoporous LiNbO 3

Abstract

Mesoporous LiNbO 3 nanoparticles with BET surface area 185 m 2 g -1 were synthesized by using Pluronic P123 as soft template. The samples showed three functionalities, viz., photoluminescence, ferroelectricity, and ferromagnetism. Room temperature photoluminescence was observed at 390 nm wavelength due to oxygen vacancy. The mesoporous LiNbO 3 showed ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. Ferroelectric behavior of the samples was confirmed from the P-E hysteresis loop measurement. The samples showed a magneto-dielectric effect with the dielectric constant increasing by ∼4.5 for an applied magnetic field of 10 kOe due to magnetostriction of the material which changed the lattice parameter to bring about an increase in the dipole moment of the unit cell. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.