Large self-biased magnetoelectric response in four-phase heterostructure with multiple low-frequency peaks

Abstract

This paper develops a self-biased magnetoelectric (ME) heterostructure FeCuNbSiB/Terfenol-D/Be-bronze/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) by sandwiching a nonmagnetic elastic Be-bronze plate between an piezoelectric PZT plate and a magnetization-graded FeCuNbSiB/Terfenol-D layer. The Be-bronze plate severs as the resonance frequency determining element of the ME heterostructure. By using the magnetization-graded magnetostrictive layer and the elastic Be-bronze plate, seven large peaks of ME response with magnitudes of 0.3–10 (V/cm Oe) in 1–70 kHz range are observed at zero-biased magnetic field. This demonstrates that the proposed multi-peak self-biased heterostructure may be useful for multifunctional devices such as multi-frequency energy harvesters or low-frequency ac magnetic field sensors.