Size-dependent magnetoelectric response of (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-Bi0.5K0.5TiO3)-(Ni0.8Zn0.2)Fe2O4 particulate composites

In this paper, we investigated the effect of magnetic grain size on magnetoelectric responses of particulate magnetoelectric 0.7(Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-Bi0.5K0.5TiO3)-0.3(Ni0.8Zn0.2)Fe2O4 (BNKT-NZFO) composites. The coexistence of two chemically separated phases was confirmed using x-ray diffraction analysis. The composites had homogeneous microstructure with controlled grain size. The magnetoelectric response of the BNKT-NZFO composites sensitively depended on the grain size of the NZFO phase and the magnetoelectric voltage coefficients presented a marked enhancement of 33% in the engineered grain size range. This result indicated that tailoring the magnetic grain size physically will provide a powerful mean of enhancing magnetoelectric coupling in a two-phase particulate composite, with large potential application in area of magnetic field sensor.