Structural, dielectric, semiconducting and optical properties of high-energy ball milled YFeO3 nano-particles

Abstract

In this work, we report the effects of calcination temperature on structural, dielectric, semiconducting and optical properties of YFeO 3 nanoparticles prepared by a high energy ball milling process. The structural analysis of the X-ray diffraction data shows that YFeO 3 exists in orthorhombic as well as in hexagonal mixed phase states. The Rietveld analysis confirms that orthorhombic YFeO 3 crystallizes into Pnma space group. The optical band gap of YFeO 3 reduces from 1.96 eV to 1.68 eV with increasing the calcination temperature of the YFeO 3 sample. The band gap reducing effect might be attributed to the increased crystallite size and decreased lattice strain which is confirmed by the Williamson-Hall plot method. The obtained low band gap YFeO 3 ceramic may provide a new possibility to develop eco-friendly Ferroelectric photovoltaic devices.