A uniaxial magnetic anisotropy Co film was grown on a single-crystal Ba Ti O3(BTO) substrate. The strain yielded by the voltage-induced ferroelastic domain switching in the BTO substrate was recorded by atomic force microscope and modulated the magnetism of the Co film. The manipulation of the magnetism of the Co film is experimentally demonstrated by voltage dependence of magnetic hysteresis loops measured via magneto-optic Kerr effect.
A magnetoelectric(ME) laminated composite made of one pair of piezoelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3(PZT) fiber layers with multiple push–pull polarization units laminated between high-permeability metglas ribbon layers with a differential configuration was proposed for vibration noise suppression. Unlike conventional metglas/PZT fiber/metglas three-layer ME laminated structures, the differential configuration has the capability to reject vibration-induced noise from the magnetic signal. The experiment results showed that the differential ME laminated composite was with up to 30 times enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio.
Multiferroic composite thinfilms of ferroelectrics and magnets have attracted ever-increasing interest in most recent years.In this review,magnetoelectric(ME)responses as well as their underlying ME coupling mechanisms in such multiferroic composite thinfilms are discussed,oriented by their potential applications in novel ME devices.Among them,the direct ME response,i.e.,magnetic-field control of polarization,can be exploited for micro-sensor applications(sensing magneticfield,electric current,light,etc.),mainly determined by a strain-mediated coupling interaction.The converse ME response,i.e.,electric-field modulation of magnetism,offers great opportunities for new potential devices for spintronics and in data storage applications.A series of prototype ME devices based on both direct and converse ME responses have been presented.The review concludes with a remark on the future possibilities and scientific challenges in thisfield.
The ferroelectric transitions of several SrTiO3-based ferroelectrics are investigated experimentally and theoretically, with special attention to the critical scaling exponents associated with the phase transitions, in order to understand the competition among quantum fluctuations (QFs), quenched disorder, and ferroelectric ordering. Two representative systems with sufficiently strong QFs and quenched disorders in competition with the ferroelectric ordering are investigated. We start from non-stoichiometric SrTiO3(STO) with the Sr/Ti ratio deviating slightly from one, which is believed to maintain strong QFs. Then, we address Ba/Ca co-doped Sr1-x(Ca0.6389Ba0.3611)xTiO3(SCBT) with the averaged Sr-site ionic radius identical to the Sr2+ ionic radius, which is believed to offer remarkable quenched disorder associated with the Sr-site ionic mismatch. The critical exponents associated with polarization P and dielectric susceptibility ε, respectively, as functions of temperature T close to the critical point Tc, are evaluated. It is revealed that both non-stoichiometric SrTiO3 and SCBT exhibit much bigger critical exponents than the Landau mean-field theory predictions. These critical exponents then decrease gradually with increasing doping level or deviation of Sr/Ti ratio from one. A transverse Ising model applicable to the Sr-site doped STO (e.g., Sr1-xCaxTiO3) at low level is used to explain the observed experimental data. It is suggested that the serious deviation of these critical exponents from the Landau theory predictions in these STO-based systems is ascribed to the significant QFs and quenched disorder by partially suppressing the long-range spatial correlation of electric dipoles around the transitions. The present work thus sheds light on our understanding of the critical behaviors of ferroelectric transitions in STO in the presence of quantum fluctuations and quenched disorder, whose effects have been demonstrated to be remarkable.
The Ginzburg-Landau theory on ferroelectrics with random field induced by dipole defects is studied by using Monte Carlo simulation, in order to investigate the dipole configuration and the dielectric relaxation of relaxor ferro-electrics. With the increase of random field, the dipole configuration evolves from the long-range ferroelectric order into the coexistence of short-range dipole-clusters and less polarized matrix. The dipole-cluster phase above the transition temperature and superparaelectric fluctuations far below this temperature are identified for the relaxor ferroelectrics. We investigate the frequency dispersion and the time-domain spectrum of the dielectric relaxation, demonstrating the Vogel-Fulcher relationship and the multi-peaked time-domain distribution of the dielectric relaxation.
