Low-frequency magnetoelectric effects in ferrite–piezoelectric nanostructures

A theoretical model is presented for low-frequency magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in ferrite–piezoelectric nanobilayers and nanopillars of ferrite and piezoelectrics. We take into account the lattice mismatch and clamping effects of the substrate in determining the ME voltage coefficient. The model could be used to estimate the ME couplings from known material parameters (piezoelectric modules, magnetostriction, stiffness and geometrics) or data on ME coupling could be used to obtain composite parameters. It is shown that increasing the substrate thickness results in a decrease in the ME interaction in nanobilayers due to the clamping caused by the substrate. For nanopillars of NFO in PZT matrix, the substrate pinning effects are negligible as long as the length of the pillar is much greater than its radius.