A new (Ba, Ca) (Ti, Zr)O 3 based multiferroic composite with large magnetoelectric effect

Abstract

The lead-free ferroelectric 0.5Ba(Zr 0.2 Ti 0.8)O 3 - 0.5(Ba 0.7 Ca 0.3)TiO 3 (BCZT) is a promising component for multifunctional multiferroics due to its excellent room temperature piezoelectric properties. Having a composition close to the polymorphic phase boundary between the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases, it deserves a case study for analysis of its potential for modern electronics applications. To obtain magnetoelectric coupling, the piezoelectric phase needs to be combined with a suitable magnetostrictive phase. In the current article, we report on the synthesis, dielectric, magnetic, and magnetoelectric characterization of a new magnetoelectric multiferroic composite consisting of BCZT as a piezoelectric phase and CoFe 2 O 4 (CFO) as the magnetostrictive phase. We found that this material is multiferroic at room temperature and manifests a magnetoelectric effect larger than that of BaTiO 3 -CoFe 2 O 4 bulk composites with similar content of the ferrite phase.