Made available through Montana State University's ScholarWorks scholarworks.montana.edu Raman vibrations and photovoltaic conversion in rare earth doped (Bi 0.93 RE 0.07)FeO 3 (RE ¼Dy, Gd, Eu, Sm) ceramics

Spontaneous magnetization and photovoltaic (PV) effects have been measured in (Bi 1-x Ba x)FeO 3-d ceramics for x ¼ 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15. The substitution of Ba 2þ ion in the A site of the perovskite unit cell can effectively enhance the ferromagnetic magnetization. The heterostructure of indium tin oxide (ITO) film/(Bi 1-x Ba x)FeO 3-d ceramic/Au film exhibits significant PV effects under illumination of k ¼ 405 nm. The PV responses decrease with increasing Ba concentration. The maximum power-conversion efficiency in the ITO/(Bi 0.95 Ba 0.5)FeO 2.95 /Au can reach 0.006%. A theoretical model based on optically excited current in the depletion region between ITO film and (Bi 1-x Ba x)FeO 3-d ceramics is used to describe the I-V characteristic, open-circuit voltage (V oc), and short-circuit current density (J sc) as a function of light intensity. V