The 2018 World Congress on Advances in Civil, Environmental, & Materials Research (ACEM18) Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Korea, August 27 - 31, 2018 Role of Microwave Power on Phase Purity and Magnetic Analysis of Bismuth Iron Oxide Thin Films Waqar Azeem 1) , Saira Riaz 2) and *Shahzad Naseem 2) 1), 2) Centre of Excellence in Solid State Physics, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan * waqar.azeem@lgu.edu.pk ABSTRACT Multiferroic materials of type ABO 3 that exhibit coupling of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering at room temperature are of particular interest in next generation memory devices. In the midst of various multiferroic materials, bismuth iron oxide is the only known single phase material with room temperature coupling and high Neel and Curie temperature. However, for preparation of BiFeO 3 thin films use of conventional methods (both wet chemical methods and physical vapor deposition methods) requires high annealing/calcination temperatures. For overcoming this difficulty, we report an alternate method for preparation of bismuth iron oxide thin films where sol synthesis is carried out using microwaves. Power of microwaves (P) is varied as 36P, 45P, 63P and 81P. Films are annealed at 300˚C in vacuum under the application of 500Oe magnetic field. X-ray diffraction results indicate formation of phase pure bismuth iron oxide at 63P. Mix bismuth iron oxide phases are obtained at 36P, 45P and 81P. Ferromagnetic behavior of bismuth iron oxide thin films at microwave power of 63P with saturation magnetization of 0.001580emu arises due to suppression of spiral spin structure. Weak magnetic behavior was observed at microwave power of 36P, 45P and 81P. 1. INTRODUCTION Both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature in multiferroic materials makes them multifaceted and felicitous choice of material for researchers. The properties of multiferroic materials can be manipulated by electric and magnetic fields, which is favorable for magentoeletric devices, sensors and especially for data storage memories (Eerenstein et al. 2006; Cheong et al. 2007). Among the most studies multiferroics, rhombohedrally distorted BiFeO 3 stands front runner because of its high Curie temperature (T c =1103K) for ferroelectric transition, high Neel temperature (T n = 643K) for antiferromagnetic transition and most importantly the cycloidal spin arrangement which plays functional role in ferromagnetism. But the undesirable phases during the synthesis process of BiFeO 3 , needs to be optimized for making BiFeO 3 suitable for considerable and potential room temperature applications. The undesirable impurity phases leads to leakage current, low dielectric constant and remnant magnetic polarization due to reduced crystallinity of material structure (Fiebig 2005; Zhao et al. 2006; Kianinia et al. 2011). 1) Graduate Student 2) Professor