Abstract
We investigated magnetic/dielectric properties and related microstructures in LuFeCuO4, which was obtained by substituting Cu2+ for Fe2+ in LuFe2O4. It was found that LuFeCuO4 shows a characteristic low-frequency dielectric dispersion around 300K. We analyzed it using the Debye model and found that LuFeCuO4 is a dielectric compound with an orientational polarization. Electron diffraction experiments revealed that there exists characteristic zigzag-shaped diffuse scattering in LuFeCuO4. In addition, we found the presence of nano-sized domains, which consist of a short-range ordering of Fe3+ and Cu2+ on the triangular lattice. The present results suggest that the short-range ordering gives rise to some anomalous dielectric properties in LuFeCuO4.
