Interfacial engineering and coupling of electric and magnetic properties in Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3/CoFe2O4 multiferroic epitaxial multilayers

Epitaxial magnetoelectric (ME) Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O-3(PZT)/CoFe2O4(CFO) multilayer nanocomposite thin films with up to 11 alternative layers are grown on Nb doped SrTiO3 (STO) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy studies reveal a good epitaxial relationship between the PZT and CFO layers without interfacial reaction at their interfaces. These epitaxial composite films exhibit strong ferroelectric and magnetic responses simultaneously at room temperature, and the interfacial-coupling-modulated dielectric behavior, polarization, and magnetic properties are observed and analyzed systematically. These results suggest that the magnetic, electric, and ME coupling effect may be tuned by the "strain engineering" in ferroelectric/ magnetic or other multiferroic superlattice. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3386510]