Unravelling the nature of magneto-electric coupling in room temperature multiferroic particulate (PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3)–(Co0.6Zn0.4Fe1.7Mn0.3O4) composites
Krishnamayee Bhoi, Hari Sankar Mohanty, Ravikant Ravikant, Md. F. Abdullah, Dhiren K. Pradhan, S. Narendra Babu, A. K. Singh, P. N. Vishwakarma, Ashok Kumar, Reji Thomas, Dillip K. Pradhan, Dillip K. Pradhan, Dillip K. Pradhan
Abstract
Abstract Multiferroic composites are promising candidates for magnetic field sensors, next-generation low power memory and spintronic devices, as they exhibit much higher magnetoelectric (ME) coupling and coupled ordering parameters compared to the single-phase multiferroics. Hence, the 3-0 type particulate multiferroic composites having general formula (1 − Φ)[PbFe 0.5 Nb 0.5 O 3 ]-Φ[Co 0.6 Zn 0.4 Fe 1.7 Mn 0.3 O 4 ] (Φ = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 1.0, (1 − Φ) PFN-ΦCZFMO) were prepared using a hybrid synthesis technique. Preliminary structural and microstructural analysis were carried out using XRD and FESEM techniques, which suggest the formation of 3-0 type particulate composite without the presence of any impurity phases. The multiferroic behaviour of the composites is studied with polarization versus electric field (P-E) and magnetization versus magnetic field (M-H) characteristics at room temperature. The nature of ME coupling was investigated elaborately by employing the Landau free energy equation along with the magneto-capacitance measurement. This investigation suggests the existence of biquadratic nature of ME coupling (P 2 M 2 ). The magneto-electric coupling measurement also suggests that strain mediated domain coupling between the ferroelectric and magnetic ordering is responsible for the magneto-electric behaviour. The obtained value of direct ME coefficient 26.78 mV/cm-Oe for Φ = 0.3, found to be higher than the well-known single-phase materials and polycrystalline composites.