Dielectric, magnetic and magnetoelectric studies on co-fired PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3–Co0.6Zn0.4Mn0.3Fe1.7O4 bilayer composite

•Dielectric, magnetic, and ME response of PZT–CZFMO bilayer composite was investigated.•A giant value of transverse ME coefficient (16.7 V/cm Oe) was obtained at f ∼ 100 Hz.•It is orders of magnitude higher than the reported values of αE for PZT–CFO composites at low frequencies.•Both αE31 and αE33 maximizes at same bias field and are comparable in magnitude at f ∼ 1 kHz.•Very high value of resonant frequency (fR ∼ 85 MHz) and band width ∼14 MHz were noticed for bilayer.

The maximum transverse magnetoelectric (ME) voltage coefficient αE31 ∼ 235 mV/cm Oe and maximum longitudinal ME voltage coefficient αE33 ∼ 148 mV/cm Oe were obtained in co-fired PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3–Co0.6Zn0.4Mn0.3Fe1.7O4 (PZT–CZFMO) bilayer composite (optimum thickness ratio tPZT/tCZFMO ∼ 1:3) at H = 700 Oe with an applied ac magnetic field of frequency = 1 kHz. Interestingly, at the lowest frequency of measurement f = 100 Hz, a giant value of αE31 ∼ 16.9 V/cm Oe was observed for this bilayer system that is orders of magnitude higher than the reported αE values (∼200–300 mV/cm Oe) for PZT–CFO composite structures at low frequencies. Better magneto-mechanical coupling resulting from the simultaneous substitution of both Mn and Zn in CFO along with the optimum thickness ratio of two layers must be the cause of substantial ME coupling in the PZT–CZFMO bilayer system. In addition, the dielectric constant spectra of bilayer revealed very high thickness resonance frequency ∼85 MHz and band width ∼14 MHz.

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