Leveraging the strain transfer at the interface between self-composite CoFe2O4 embedded in pre-sintered Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 ceramics matrix for the enhancement of magnetoelectric voltage coefficient

Abstract

Magnetoelectric particulate composite (100-x) NBT- xCFO(sc) (x = 5,15,25,35) were prepared from pre-sintered NBT and self-composite CFO(sc) by solid-state reaction route. XRD, SEM, and Raman studies confirm the biphasic composite formation without diffusion at the interfaces. Unsaturated ferroelectric loops and enhanced ferromagnetic properties are evidenced. ME coefficient value is enhanced to 25.1 mV cm−1 Oe in the N65SC35 composite which is the greatest among the reported values in the literature of NBT-CFO composites. The enhancement is due to the effective strain transfer at the interfaces of the composites. This is explained by a simple dimensionless quantity, degree of interface. This quantity is defined using the interface length of ferroelectric-ferromagnetic phases and the weighted average grain size which corroborates the enhancement of the ME coefficient.