Single Phase Synthesis and Room temperature Neutron Diffraction Studies on Multiferroic PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3

The Lead-iron-niobate, (PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3 or PFN) was synthesized by low temperature sintering Single Step / Solid State Reaction Method. The 700 C / 2 hrs calcined powder was sintered at 1050 C / 1 hr. The sintered pellets were characterized through X-Ray Diffraction and Neutron Diffraction at room temperature. It is found from the XRD pattern that the materials is in single phase with no traces of pyrochlore phase. It was also confirmed from the neutron diffraction pattern, the structure of PFN to be monoclinic, belongs to space group C m. Structural studies has been carried out by refining the obtained neutron diffraction data by Reitveld refinement method using Full Prof Program. The neutron diffraction pattern at 290K (near room temperature) was selected to refine the structure. The Lattice parameters obtained are; a = 5.6709 A, b = 5.6732, c = 4.0136 and {\alpha} = 90, \b{eta} = 89.881, {\gamma} = 90.000. The P-E measurements showed hysteretic behavior with high remnant polarization.