We report a potential way to enhance and tune the multiferroic and resistive switching properties of BiFeO3 nanoparticles through dilute aliovalent Li(1+) doping (0.046 atomic percent) at the Fe(3+) sites of BiFeO3. The high purity of the samples and the extent of doping were confirmed by different physical characterizations. Enhanced multiferroic properties with a magnetic moment per Fe atom ≈ 0.12 μB and electric polarization ≈ 49 μC cm(-2) were observed in one of the Li(1+) doped samples. A phenomenological model has been proposed to support the observed magnetic behavior of the doped samples. From a potential application point of view, we further report on the doping concentration and polarization coercivity dependent highly stable resistive switching behavior (endurance cycles >10(3) and stability >10(6) s) of Li-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles. The stable complementary resistive switching behavior (1 bit operation) for >50 cycles and under voltage pulse for 10(3) cycles in the doped BiFeO3 at a low operating bias is reported. Thus, dilute aliovalent Li(1+) doping enables tunability of the ferroic and resistive switching properties of BiFeO3and shows it to be a promising multiferroic material.

We report a correlation between surface null potential and bistable resistive switching effect in dilutely Al-doped ZnO nearly transparent thin film. The nearly symmetrical bistable resistive switching was observed at low operating potential (±1 V) with good repeatability and stability, driven by surface null potential. We report that above null potential, oxygen vacancies in the proximity of aluminum provide systematic development of conducting paths. While, the switching effect was also observed to be dopant driven in the proximity to ±1 V. The phenomenon was explained using migration of Al3+ in ZnO matrix, which dominates over oxygen vacancies.

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