Investigating the impact of Gd³⁺ ion substitution in Sr₂FeTiO₆: insights into magnetic, electrical, and structural properties

In the present investigations, Gd³⁺ ions were substituted at the Sr²⁺ site through conventional solid state reaction technique. The influence of Gd³⁺ ion substitution on the physical attributes of Sr₂FeTiO₆ (SFTO) was meticulously examined. The basic structure of Sr_{2 − x}Gd_xFeTiO₆ (SGFTO) (x = 0.2 to 0.8), was employed to start the Rietveld structural refinement of the powder X-ray diffraction patterns. This process confirmed the presence of a cubic structure with a space group of Pm3m. The replacement of Gd³⁺ ions, noted for their larger ionic radii, led to a minor increase in the lattice parameters and the volume of the unit cell. The identity of the elements within the compound was determined by examining their oxidation states through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The SEM images reveal that as Gd content increases in the SGFTO samples, the structure becomes denser and more agglomerated, with reduced porosity and less uniform particle sizes. This suggests that higher Gd content leads to a more compact morphology, potentially impacting the material’s electrochemical performance and mechanical stability. The use of diffuse reflectance measurements confirmed that the band gap values decreased slightly from 2.95 eV to 2.24 eV for the Sr_{2 − x}Gd_xFeTiO₆ (x = 0.2–0.8) materials, indicating that these synthesized samples exhibit semiconductor nature. The study investigated how often the dielectric constant and its behavior change with temperature, and these measurements proved that as the amount of Gd³⁺ in the material increased from 0.2 to 0.8, the dielectric constant also increases. The research on magnetization showed that the prepared materials had a stronger magnetic property and displayed a antiferromagnetic behavior. All synthesized materials made in this way has the possibility to be used in today’s electronic devices, magneto-optical storage devices, and magneto-dielectric technologies.