Investigations on NiZn Ferrite – PZT Composites

Abstract

Many of the modern technologies require materials with unusual combinations of properties i.e. composite materials that exhibit a significant proportion of the properties of constituent phases such that a better combination of properties can be realized. These artificially made composites (multiphase materials) may acquire certain valuable properties not found in the components. The composites are classified as polymer composites, metal composites, elemental composites and ceramic composites. The area of interest in the present work is the magnetoelectric composites which belong to the class of ceramic composites consisting of magnetostrictive and ferroelectric materials. The coexistence of magnetism and ferroelectricity and particularly existence of a coupling between constituent phases (magnetic and ferroelectric) known as Magnetoelectric (ME) Coupling brings about novel physical phenomenon. Hence the study of magnetoelectric composites has become one of the most popular areas in the field of materials science and offers new ideas for multifunctional materials suitable for a variety of device applications like magnetic field sensors, multiple state memory elements, transducers for magnetic field measurements, electro–optic devices with switching in magnetic fields, magnetically tuned capacitors etc. In recent years, a combination of ferrimagnetic and ferroelectric materials has been extensively studied resulting in magnetostriction induced deformation (ferrite phase) and the generation of piezoelectric charge (ferroelectric phase). However, utilizing magnetoelectric composites for multifunctional device applications is still limited and various research groups have been trying to improve ME coupling by suitable substitutions and better control of processing parameters.