Strong magnetoelectric coupling in CoFe2O4–BaTiO3 composites prepared by molten-salt synthesis method

Magnetoelectric nano-composites (1 − x)CoFe2O4 + (x)BaTiO3 with x varies as 0, 0.5, 0.65 and 1.0 in molar ratio were prepared by molten-salt synthesis method. The structural analysis carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique has confirmed that both phases are present in all the nano-composites powders and ceramic composites. The TEM images show that the nano-particle crystallite size is about 50–80 nm, which is consistent to the result calculated by XRD. The dielectric constant was studied as a function of frequency for ceramic composites sintered by using those nano-composite powders. The saturation magnetization (Ms) and remnant polarization (Pr) were calculated from the magnetic hysteresis loop and electric hysteresis loop, respectively. And a large ME coefficient of about 17.04 mV cm−1 Oe−1 was observed for 0.5CoFe2O4 + 0.5BaTiO3 ME composite under the ac superimposed magnetic signal with 20 kHz frequency by using the lock-in technique.