Effect of incorporation of magnetization in antiferromagnetic Cr₂O₃ by mechanically alloying with α-Fe nanoparticles

Recently, study on magnetoelectric (ME) materials have attracted much attention due to their applicability in low power dissipation electronic devices. Most of the single-phase ME materials are antiferromagnet (AFM) having zero net magnetic moment and hence difficult to detect their spin states. Herein, efforts have been made to introduce magnetism in ME-AFM Cr₂O₃ by mechanically milling it with a ferromagnetic (FM) α-Fe. Formation of pure phase nanocomposites is evidenced from the microstructural and hyperfine investigations. Phenomena like decrement in crystallite size and unit cell parameters (a & c) with the evolution of lattice strain are also observed with the increase in milling duration. Sample synthesized with highest milling duration shows the signature of exchange bias (H_ex) along with enhancement of coercivity (H_c) at low temperature. Most importantly, the presence of thermo-remanent-magnetization above the room temperature and high blocking temperature (T_B) make the material suitable for fabrication of ME based memory devices.