Tunable magnetoelectronic properties in Bi3+ substituted YCrO3

A detailed structural, magnetic as well as dielectric dynamics study is carried out to investigate the influence of Bi3+ on YCrO3. All the samples crystalize in orthorhombic structure with Pnma symmetry and the grains are mostly stretched with Bi. A coexisting tunable fraction of both antiferromagnetic (AFM) and weak ferromagnetic (WFM) phases is acquired by the system down to Low-T. An abnormal negative magnetization in zero field is correlated to the competition among AFM and WFM phases. Maximum magnetization decreases while the coercivity first increases and then decreases with Bi is correlated to the competing effect between the local deformation and Cr–O–Cr exchange interaction. The magnetodielectric coupling with improved permittivity might be associated with the 6s2 lone pair electron of Bi3+. Furthermore, ac-conductivity increases with a decrease in activation energy (0.27–0.11 eV), is explained in the framework of structural model and charge carrier hopping between Cr3+ and Cr4+ ions.