Excellent piezoelectric and magnetoelectric properties of the (K0.45Na0.55)0.98Li0.02(Nb0.77Ta0.18Sb0.05)O3/Ni0.37Cu0.20Zn0.43Fe1.92O3.88 laminated composites

The laminated composites of (K0.45Na0.55)0.98Li0.02(Nb0.77Ta0.18Sb0.05)O3 (LKNNTS)/Ni0.37Cu0.20Zn0.43Fe1.92O3.88 (NCZF) were successfully prepared by the conventional solid-state sintering method. Detailed investigations were conducted on optimization of the magnitude of electrical property and magnetoelectric effect by varying the content of NCZF. The results show that the LKNNTS phase and NCZF phase can coexist in the composites. Compared with the particulate composites, the laminated composites have better piezoelectric and magnetoelectric properties due to their higher resistivities and lower leakage currents. The laminated composites possess a high Curie temperature (TC) of 240 °C, the largest saturation polarization (Ps) of 32.9 μC/cm2 and the largest piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 225 pC/N. The largest magnetoelectric coefficient of the LKNNTS/NCZF laminated composites reaches up to 133 mV/cm Oe at a bias magnetic field of 300 Oe with the frequency of 1 kHz, which is four times as large as that of particulate composites (34 mV/cm Oe). The magnetoelectric behaviors are strongly dependent on the relative content of the LKNNTS phase and NCZF phase.