Voltage-impulse-induced nonvolatile tunable magnetoelectric inductor based on multiferroic bilayer structure

Abstract

In this study, we developed a voltage-impulse-induced nonvolatile tunable magnetoelectric inductor, which used an amorphous magnetic ribbon/lead zirconate titanate (PZT) multiferroic bilayer structure as a magnetic core. The PZT substrate, which contained defect dipoles through acceptor doping, was used in the bilayer structure to obtain an asymmetric strain–E “butterfly” curve. Different and stable voltage-impulse-induced in-plane residual stain states could be obtained by applying specific voltage impulse excitation modes. These residual strain states induced a nonvolatile inductance variation in the inductor through strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling. This method provided a promising approach to realize nonvolatile tunable inductors for miniaturized circuits and systems.