Enhanced magnetization and magnetoelectric coupling in 1-x(BiFeO3)/x(La2/3Sr1/3MnO3) composites

In this study, we have synthesized BiFeO3 (BFO) and La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) composites, 1-x(BFO)/x(LSMO) with x = 0, 0.10, 0.20 and 0.30 by solid state sintering method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show the peaks corresponding to both BFO and LSMO phase, which indicates the successful formation of composites. Room temperature magnetization (M-H) versus field study shows that the saturation magnetization enhances from 0.147 to 3.04 emu/g as we add the LSMO content to the BFO samples from x=0 to 0.30. The polarization versus electric field (P-E) loops, observed for pure BFO and 1-x(BFO)/x(LSMO) composite with x = 0.10, show that the value of maximum polarization increases from 0.48 to 0.79 mu C/cm(2) for the composite from x = 0 to x = 0.10. Magnetoelectric study reveals that the value of quadratic magnetoelectric coefficient beta increases from 4.02 x 10-7 to 2.54 x 10(-6) mV/cm-Oe(2) for the composites x = 0 to x = 0.10, which indicates that the magnetoelectric coupling improves for the composite x = 0.10. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.