Large magnetoelectric effect in negative magnetostrictive/piezoelectric/positive magnetostrictive laminate composites with two resonance frequencies

A magnetoelectric (ME) Ni-PZT-TbFe2 trilayer with negative magnetostrictive/piezoelectric/positive magnetostrictive layers has been prepared. The influence of the bias magnetic field and the magnetic field frequency on ME coupling is discussed. The ME coefficient behavior of the Ni-PZT-TbFe2 trilayer is different from that of Ni-PZT-Ni and TbFe2-PZT-TbFe2 trilayers. Two remarkable resonance peaks have been observed in the dependence of the ME voltage coefficient on the magnetic field frequency, which makes these Ni-PZT-TbFe2 trilayers suitable for applications in multifunctional devices with multifrequency operation. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.