Magnetic properties and magneto electric effect in ferroelectric rich Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4+BPZT ME composites

Magneto electric composites with composition (x) Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4+(1–x) Ba0.8Pb0.2Zr0.8Ti0.2O3 (BPZT—barium lead zirconate titanate) in which x varies as 0.0, 0.15, 0.30, 0.45 and 1.0 mol% were prepared by standard double sintering ceramic method. The presence of constituent phases such as ferrite and ferroelectric was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The structural analyses were carried out by using X-ray diffraction pattern. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) were taken to understand the microstructure of the samples. The calculated values of the porosity of the samples lie between 4.5% and 16.2%. The hysteresis measurements were made to determine saturation magnetization (Ms), magnetic moment (μB) and coercivity (Hc). From the AC susceptibility measurements the contribution of both the single domain (SD) particles of the ferrite phase and mixed domain (SD+MD) particles of the composites in ME output were explained. The static magneto electric voltage coefficients (dE/dH)H were measured as a function of intensity of magnetic field and the maximum ME coefficient were observed for the composites with 30% of ferrite+70% of ferroelectric phase.