Observation of magnetoelectric coupling in (1 − x) BaTiO3/(x) La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 composites

• The composites of ferroelectric BaTiO3 with ferromagnetic LSMO, (1 − x) BTO/(x) LSMO were synthesized.
• M–H loops show that the saturation magnetization enhances as we increase LSMO content.
• RT multiferroicity is observed in (1 − x) BTO/(x) LSMO composite for x = 0.05, which is interesting and novel result.

In the present work, we have synthesized BaTiO3 (BTO) and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) composites, (1 − x) BTO/(x) LSMO with x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show the peaks corresponding to both BTO and LSMO phase, which indicates the successful formation of composites. Polarization versus electric field (P–E) loops of sample with x = 0.05 shows feeble ferroelectric behaviour which tends towards lossy capacitor behaviour for x = 0.10. Further, no ferroelectric loop is observed for composites x = 0.15 and 0.20. It is observed that the value of dielectric constant and dielectric loss is maximum for x = 0.05 which decreases with the increment of LSMO content above x = 0.05. Furthermore, room temperature magnetization versus magnetic field (M–H) loops shows the saturation magnetization enhances from 0.063 to 0.218 emu/g for the sample x = 0.05–0.20, respectively. Magnetoelectric study reveals that the value of quadratic magnetoelectric coefficient β decreases from 1.64 × 10−4 to 3.75 × 10−5 mv/cm Oe2 for the composites x = 0.05 to x = 0.10, which indicates that maximum magnetoelectric coupling is present in the sample x = 0.05. Further, no magnetoelectric coupling is observed for the sample x = 0.15 and 0.20.