Investigation of electrical transport and magnetoelectric coupling of codoped ferrite–PbZr0.58Ti0.42O3 multiferroic nanocomposites

Abstract

The multiferroic magnetoelectric materials have gained intensive research interest in the recent years due to their prospective applications. In this perspective, the thermally tunable complex impedance, dielectric behavior and room-temperature magnetoelectric coupling of xCo[Formula: see text]Ni[Formula: see text]Fe2O4–(1 - x)PbZr[Formula: see text]Ti[Formula: see text]O3 (x = 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5) nanocomposites have been investigated. A series of samples have been prepared by chemical pyrophoric reaction process. The structural characterization confirms the coexistence of two different types of phases, there is no phase segregation. The temperature-controlled complex impedance analysis reveals that grain boundaries and grain of the nanocomposites are playing a dominating role. The existence of Maxwell–Wagner interfacial polarization of the nanocomposites causes a high dielectric constant at low frequency. The calculated AC conductivity values with frequency at different temperatures follow the Jonscher’s power-law. A small polaronic hopping contributes largely to the conduction process of the decorated composite. The magnetostriction properties lead to the AC and DC magnetic field-dependent magnetoelectric coupling of the nanocomposites. The magnetoelectric coupling coefficient depends on the concentration of the piezomagnetic phase of the composites.