Abstract

La₂Ti₂O₇ nanocrystalline powders and pellets were prepared by sol–gel method. The nanocrystalline powders present room-temperature ferromagnetism (FM). The vacuum annealing enhances FM, showing that the observed room-temperature FM for La₂Ti₂O₇ possibly originates from oxygen vacancies at/near surfaces of nanograins. La₂Ti₂O₇ pellets annealed at 1000 °C for 1 h show the coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity (FE) at room temperature. Meanwhile, the room-temperature magnetodielectric (MD) effect was also observed in the La₂Ti₂O₇ multiferroic pellet, indicating the coupling between magnetic and electric properties. The value of Δ_r/_r(0) for La₂Ti₂O₇ multiferroic pellet reaches 39.3% at 1 kHz under H = 6 kOe.