Magnetoelectric interaction phenomena in materials

Abstract

Following the phenomenological approach of Landau and Lifshitz the existence of linear magnetoelectric effect in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3 was predicted by Dzyaloshinskii which was later experimentally confirmed by Astrov and Folen et al. Magnetoelectric phenomenon has been observed in several single-phase materials in which simultaneous electric and magnetic ordering coexists and in two-phase composites in which the participating phases are the ferroelectric and magnetic. The author's group has recently undertaken a systematic study of the preparation, characterization and detection of the (ME)H output in a few single-phase materials and two-phase composites. This article describes the magnetoelectric phenomenon in general and recent work carried out in the author's group. © 1994 the Indian Academy of Sciences.