ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the magnetoelectric (ME) properties of ferrite–piezoelectric composites, to create new ME composites with enhanced ME couplings that would enable them for application in functional electronics devices. The reasons for the giant ME effects in layered composites are: high piezoelectric and piezomagnetic coefficients in individual layers, ease of poling and subsequent achievement of a full piezoelectric effect, and ability to hold charge due to suppression of leakage currents across composites with a two-two connectivity. Configurational asymmetry of a bilayer implies bending the sample in applied magnetic or electric field and variation in ME response. The magnetoelectric effect in composites is caused by mechanically coupled magnetostrictive and piezoelectric subsystems: it is present in neither subsystem separately. The theoretical modeling is based on the well-known equations for the strain, electric displacement, and magnetic field of piezoelectric and magnetostrictive layers.
