Chapter 2 The Effect of Mechanical Activation on the Synthesis and Properties of Multiferroic Lead Iron Niobate A. A. Gusev, I. P. Raevski, E. G. Avvakumov, V. P. Isupov, S. P. Kubrin, H. Chen, C.-C. Chou, D. A. Sarychev, V. V. Titov, A. M. Pugachev, S. I. Raevskaya and V. V. Stashenko The present work studies the effect of high-energy mechanical activation using the planetary-centrifugal ball mill AGO-2 and subsequent annealing on the synthesis and magnetic properties of PbFe 0.5 Nb 0.5 O 3 (PFN). This technique enables one to perform the mechanically activated synthesis of PFN at much shorter time. The results of X-ray phase analysis, electron microscopic studies and transmission Mössbauer 57 Fe spectra measurement are presented and discussed. Mössbauer studies show that the temperature of magnetic phase transition in PbFe 0.5 Nb 0.5 O 3 powders can be changed by mechanical activation and subsequent annealing. 2.1 Introduction Lead iron niobate PbFe 0.5 Nb 0.5 O 3 (PFN) is a ternary perovskite oxide possessing both ferroelectric (ferroelectric Curie temperature T C & 380 K) and magnetic (temperature of antiferomagnetic phase transition, i.e. Neél temperature, T N & 150 K) properties [1]. PFN is a promising basic material for multilayer A. A. Gusev  E. G. Avvakumov  V. P. Isupov Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia I. P. Raevski  S. P. Kubrin  D. A. Sarychev  V. V. Titov  S. I. Raevskaya (&)  V. V. Stashenko Research Institute of Physics and Physical Faculty, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia e-mail: sveta.raevskaya@mail.ru H. Chen University of Macau, Macau, China C.-C. Chou National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Republic of China (Taiwan) A. M. Pugachev Institute of Automation and Electrometry, SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia S.-H. Chang et al. (eds.), Advanced Materials, Springer Proceedings in Physics 152, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-03749-3_2, Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 15