Magnetoelectric effect in magnetostrictive-piezoelectric composites containing magnetite nanoparticles

Abstract

We report the use of nanoparticle (NP) magnetite, Fe3O4, in magnetostrictive-piezoelectric composites in trilayer laminate and single layer form. The magnetoelectric (ME) effect in both structures is highly anisotropic and linear up to 9 kOe. A trilayer laminated Fe3O4-NPs/PZT/Fe3O4-NPs composite displays the highest dc magnetic field response sensitivity, with dVME,ac/dHdc reaching 42 nV/Oe at a resonance frequency of 19.43 kHz. A slightly lower dVME,ac/dHdc of 35 nV/Oe is found for a single layer mixed composite containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles and BaTiO3 nanopowder at a resonance frequency of 0.4 kHz. The lowest ME response is observed for a single layer composite that had Fe3O4 nanoparticles and PZT powder where dVME,ac/dHdc is 1.4 nV/Oe at resonance (0.335 kHz). Our results show that composites containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles have potential applications that include wide magnetic field range vector magnetic field sensors – parallel magnetic field sensing using a trilayer configuration and perpendicular magnetic field sensing using a single layer configuration.