Modeling of Small DC Magnetic Field Response in Trilayer Magnetoelectric Laminate Composites

B Zadov,I Gluzman,A Grosz,A Elmalem,D Levron,S Lineykin,E Liverts,E Paperno,A Nudelman

doi:10.1155/2012/383728

Abstract

We consider a magnetoelectric laminate which comprises two magnetostrictive (Ni) layers and an in-between piezoelectric layer (PZT). Using the finite-element method-based software COMSOL, we numerically calculate the induced voltage between the two faces of the PZT piezoelectric layer, by an external homogeneous small-signal magnetic field threading the three-layer Ni/PZT/Ni laminate structure. A bias magnetic field is simulated as being produced by two permanent magnets, as it is done in real experimental setups. For approaching the real materials’ properties, a measured magnetization curve of the Ni plate is used in the computations. The reported results take into account the finite-size effects of the structure, such as the fringing electric field effect and the demagnetization, as well as the effect of the finite conductivity of the Ni layers on the output voltage. The results of the simulations are compared with the experimental data and with a widely known analytical result for the induced magnetoelectric voltage.

Highlights

Magnetostrictive-piezoelectric laminates exhibiting magnetoelectric (ME) effect have drawn increasing interest due to their potential for many modern devices, such as sensors, gyrators, and energy harvesters [1,2,3]
Various numerical methods were proposed to study the ME effect in the multiferroic composite including the finite-element method (FEM) modeling [11,12,13]; the FEM modeling was applied to the composite multiferroic device analysis [12]
We use an explicit H-B curve [15, 16] of the Ni plates bonded in the ME laminate, which we model in such a manner that the measured and computed strains of the laminate that develop under application of an external magnetic field are close to each other as much as possible

Summary

Introduction

Magnetostrictive-piezoelectric laminates exhibiting magnetoelectric (ME) effect have drawn increasing interest due to their potential for many modern devices, such as sensors, gyrators, and energy harvesters [1,2,3]. As was argued [8], those expressions for αME are leading asymptotic ones at the lateral-to-transverse dimensions ratios tending to infinity, which result from neglecting the true boundary conditions for all the previously mentioned physical fields. In this approach, αME depends only on the fractional thicknesses of the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive layers and not on the lateral dimensions of the laminate, which contradicts the new experimental data [9, 10]. Various numerical methods were proposed to study the ME effect in the multiferroic composite including the finite-element method (FEM) modeling [11,12,13]; the FEM modeling was applied to the composite multiferroic device analysis [12]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion