Effect of Os doping on electrical properties of YMnO3 multiferroic perovskite-oxide compounds

In this study, YMnO3 (YMO) and osmium (Os) doped YMO (YMn1-xOsxO3 ) (x = 0.01, 0.05, 0.10) compounds were synthesized via conventional solid-state reaction and their frequency and temperature depended electrical properties were investigated by wide range dielectric/impedance spectrometer. Structural and chemical analysis of YMO and Os doped YMO powders were carried out using via scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Impedance measurement results revealed that only grain boundary relaxation peak observed for YMO and 1 mol% Os doped YMO whereas both grain boundary and grain relaxation peaks observed for 5 mol% and 10 mol% Os doped samples. It has been seen that resistivity of the YMO can be decreased via Os doping and we observed that 10 mol% Os doped sample has the lowest resistivity among the other samples. The activation energies of YMO and Os doped YMO compounds were calculated. The results showed that the activation energy values of studied compounds gradually decreased via increasing Os doping ratio. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the grain boundaries have higher energies that the grains.