Investigation of Magnetoelectric Effect in the Bi-Layer Plate Structure

Abstract

Recently, the magnetoelectric (ME) effect is widely studied to apply in sensing applications. This paper proposes the investigation of ME effect in the bi-layer plate structure, which is the structure that allows deformation in the thickness direction. Mathematical models of the ME coefficients are developed using the constitutive equations of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric. Two modes of interest include longitudinal-transverse (L-T) and transverse-transverse (T-T) modes. Applying the models to the nanolayer of Terfenol-D/PZT in the assumingly low frequency regime yields the optimal thickness ratio of 0.34 for both modes. The maximum ME coefficients for 5, 10, and 10 nm thick structures are equal but occur at different resonant frequencies. They are approximately 480 and 240 mV/Oe cm for T-T and L-T modes, respectively. The maximum ME coefficients of the Terfenol-D/PZT plate structure are sufficiently high for nanoscale magnetic sensing applications.