Experimental determination of the magnetoelectric coupling coefficient via piezoelectric measurements

Multiferroic materials exhibit a coupling between their intrinsic electric and magnetic fields known as magnetoelectric (ME) coupling. The ME coupling can be stress-mediated and is induced either magnetically or electrically. The linear ME coupling coefficient, a, gives a comprehensive description of this effect. However, the experimental determination of a is rather complex. In this paper, we report a simple and convenient experiment for the measurement of the magnetically induced ME coupling coefficient. Our experiment is based on the quasi-static piezoelectric coefficient measurement under applied magnetic field and can provide simultaneously the d33 piezo-coefficient of a multiferroic sample and the magnetically induced a coefficient as a function of both applied ac and dc magnetic fields.