Study of dielectric, magnetic and magnetoelectric behavior of (x)NZF-(1-x)PLSZT multiferroic composites

The magnetoelectric composites (x)Ni
_0.75
Zn
_0.25
Fe
₂
O
₄
-(1-x)Pb
_0.9
(La
_0.96
Sr
_0.04
)
_0.1
(Zr
_0.65
Ti
_0.35
)
_0.975
O
₃
(for x variations 0, 0.20 and 1.0) where Ni
_0.75
Zn
_0.25
Fe
₂
O
₄
i.e. NZF is ferrite phase and Pb
_0.9
(La
_0.96
Sr
_0.04
)
_0.1
(Zr
_0.65
Ti
_0.35
)
_0.975
O
₃
i.e. PLSZT is ferroelectric phase, were synthesized via solid state reaction method. The presence of both the constituent phases was confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies. The microstructural analysis and grain size determination was carried out using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). Variation of dielectric constant and dielectric loss with temperature at various frequencies (1 kHz and 10 kHz) was studied. The good ferroelectric behavior and ferromagnetic behavior of the composites were confirmed by Polarization versus Electric field (P-E) and Magnetization versus Magnetic field (M-H) measurements, respectively. The coupling between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic domains was confirmed through the observation of magnetic fieldinduced relative change in dielectric constant (Magnetocapacitance). The value of magnetocapacitance is found to be 2.6 % for the synthesized composite (with x=0.20). The fractional change of magnetic field induced dielectric constant can also be expressed as Δε~γM
²
and the value of γ is found to be ~8.16×10
^-2
(emu/g)
^-2
for composite with x=0.20.