Vibration Mode-Dependent Energy Harvesting Characteristics of Magnetoelectric Composite Cantilevers

In this letter, we simply fabricate magnetoelectric (ME) composite cantilevers through bonding 30 μm thick Metglas and 52 μm thick polyvinylidene fluoride with an epoxy, and report resonant and energy harvesting characteristics with applied DC and AC magnetic fields ranging from 0 to 3 kA/m. Generated ME voltages from a 40 mm long, 12.3 mm wide, and 112 μm thick cantilever are measured and analyzed as a function of the applied magnetic field. In our experiment, higher ME voltages are generated when both the DC and AC magnetic fields are present and the ME voltages around the second flexural bending mode are approximately five times higher than those around the first mode. The higher ME voltage with the second mode is also confirmed with finite element analysis.