Enhanced electrical properties and observation of magnetoelectric effect in the BiFeO3–BaTiO3/CoFe2O4 laminate composites

• BFO–BTO/CFO Laminate composite was prepared by solid-state sintering method.
• The ferroelectric property was enhanced by the laminate composite.
• The maximum ME coefficient of the composite is about 26.2 mV/cm Oe.

This work investigates the electrical, magnetic and magnetoelectric response of the BiFeO3–BaTiO3/CoFe2O4 laminate composite which was prepared by the conventional solid-state sintering method. The results show that 0.6BiFeO3–0.4BaTiO3 phase and CoFe2O4 phase can coexist without any obvious chemical reaction in the composites under high sintering temperature. Compared with the magnetoelectric particulate composites, the laminate composites exhibit better electrical and magnetoelectric properties due to their higher resistivity and lower leakage current. The magnetoelectric behaviors were dependent on the relative mass ratio of the two phases, the frequency and the magnetic field. The largest magnetoelectric coefficient of the laminate composites reaches up to 26.2 mV/cm Oe at a bias magnetic field of 400 Oe and a frequency of 5 kHz, which is three times as large as that of the particulate composites (8.5 mV/cm Oe).