The magnetostrictive and magnetoelectric characterization of Ni0.3Zn0.62Cu0.08Fe2O4–Pb(FeNb)0.5O3 laminated composite

Abstract

Magnetoelectric effect in multiferroic materials is widely studied for its fundamental interest and practical applications. The magnetoelectric effect observed for single phase multiferroics is usually small. A much larger effect can be obtained in composites consisting of magnetostrictive and ferroelectric phases. This paper investigates the magnetoelectric effect of multilayer (laminated) structure consisting of 7 nickel ferrite and 8 PFN relaxor layers. It describes the synthesis and tape casting process for Ni0.3Zn0.62Cu0.08Fe2O4 ferrite and relaxor PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3 (PFN). Magnetic susceptibility, hysteresis, ZFC–FC curves and dependencies of magnetization versus temperature for PFN relaxor and magnetoelectric composite were measured with a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) in an applied magnetic field up to 85kOe at a temperature range of 10–400K. Parallel and perpendicular magnetostriction of the pure ferrite and bulk and laminated composites were measured at room temperature as a function of the magnetic field (0.3–6.5kOe). Magnetoelectric effect at room temperature was investigated as a function of the static magnetic field (0.3–6.5kOe) and the frequency of the sinusoidal magnetic field (0.01–6.5kHz). At lower magnetic field, the magnetoelectric coefficient increases slightly before reaching a maximum and then decreases. The magnetoelectric coefficient αME increases continuously as the frequency is raised, although this increase is less pronounced in the 1–6.5kHz range. The maximum values of magnetoelectric coefficient attained for the layered composites exceed about 50mV/(Oecm).