Thickness ratio effect on multiferroic properties of BCZT-LCMO laminated composites prepared by Plasma Activated Sintering

Multiferroic laminated composites, (1-x)BCZT-xLCMO, consisting of Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.10Ti0.90O3 (BCZT) layer and La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) layer with different thickness ratios were prepared by Plasma Activated Sintering, and the effect of thickness ratio on their multiferroic properties was investigated. The SEM and TEM analyses demonstrated the high-quality interfacial bonding of BCZT layer to LCMO layer with a compact interface and semi-coherent boundary structure. The ferroelectric and ferromagnetic features confirmed that the (1-x)BCZT-xLCMO laminated composites were multiferroic in nature. Our results further indicated that the thickness ratio had a great influence on the multiferroic properties of the laminated composites, not only electrical and ferromagnetic properties but also magnetoelectric coupling effect. The (1-x)BCZT-xLCMO laminated composites exhibited the largest values of dielectric constant εm = 25097, remnant polarization Pr = 10.3 μC/cm2 and piezoelectric coefficient d33 = 355 pC/N. The high magnetoelectric coefficient with the maximum value of αE31 = 6.57 mV/cm·Oe was also obtained.