Phase-sensitive detection of acoustically stimulated electromagnetic response in steel

Abstract

The signal amplitude and the phase of acoustically stimulated electromagnetic (ASEM) response have been investigated in steel. In the ASEM method, magnetization is temporally modulated with the radio frequency (rf) of irradiated ultrasonic waves through magnetomechanical coupling. The first-harmonic components of the induced rf dipolar magnetic fields are detected using a resonant loop antenna. The signal amplitude of ASEM waves is determined by the magnitude of local piezomagnetic coefficients on an acoustically excited spot. Here, we divided the ASEM waves into the “in-phase” and “quadrature” components by phase-sensitive detection (PSD). On the basis of the linear response theory, we provided the theoretical formalism of ASEM response by introducing local complex piezomagnetic coefficients, dloc = d′ + id′′. We investigated the magnetic field (H) dependence of the individual components on the different surface conditions of steel plates. The in-phase component [∝ d′(H)] shows a hysteresis loop on the machined surface of a steel plate, in which d′(H) switches sign at two finite field values, ±H0. The inversion of magnetization associated with the applied static fields is thus definitely observed in the PSD measurements. In addition, we measured the hysteresis behaviors on a steel surface with a thin mill scale (iron oxide layers). The hysteresis loop broadens and a significant contribution of the quadrature component [∝ d′′(H)] is found. We discuss the origin of the hysteresis behaviors of d′ and d′′ using the Debye relaxation model.