Magnetoelectric properties in nickel ferrite-niobate relaxor bulk composites

Magnetoelectric effect in multiferroic materials is widely studied for its fundamental interest and practical applications. The magnetoelectric effect observed for single phase materials like Cr2O3, BiFeO3, Pb(Fe0.5Nb0.5)O-3 is usually small. A much larger effect can be obtained in composites consisting of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases. This paper investigates the magnetostrictive and magnetoelectric properties of nickel ferrite Ni0.3Zn0.62Cu0.08Fe2O4 - relaxor Pb(Fe0.5Nb0.5)O-3 bulk composites. The magnetic properties of composites shows a dependence typical of such composite materials, i.e. it consists of a dominating signal from ferrimagnetic phase (ferrite) and a weak signal from paramagnetic (antiferromagnetic) phase (relaxors). Magnetoelectric effect at room temperature was investigated as a function of static magnetic field (300-7200 Oe) and frequency (10 Hz-10 kHz) of sinusoidal modulation magnetic field. The magnetoelectric effect increase slightly before reaching a maximum at H-DC = 750 Oe and then decrease. The magnetoelectric coefficient increases continuously as frequency is raised, although this increase is less pronounced in the 1-10 kHz range.