Cation Vacancy-Induced Ferromagnetism in Nanocrystalline CaTiO3 Plate

The nanocrystalline CaTiO₃ plates annealed at 1000 °C for 1 h present room temperature ferromagnetism (FM). The FM almost disappears when annealed at 1000 °C for 12 h. The reduction of FM for the nanocrystalline plates after vacuum annealing suggests that the room temperature FM of CaTiO₃ nanocrystalline plate originates from the cation vacancies. The results of the density functional theory calculation show that the stoichiometric CaTiO₃ is nonmagnetic and the neutral Ca vacancy may be responsible for the observed FM in CaTiO₃. In addition, the magnetodielectric effect is also observed in ferromagnetic CaTiO₃ nanocrystalline plate.