Magnetoelectric Composites

In a composite of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases, mechanical strain mediates magnetoelectric (ME) coupling between the magnetic and the electric subsystems. This review discusses recent advances in the physics of ME interactions in layered composites and nanostructures and potential device applications. The ME phenomena of importance are giant low-frequency interactions and coupling when the electric and/or the magnetic subsystems show resonance, including electromechanical resonance (EMR) in the piezoelectric phase, ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in the magnetic phase, and magnetoacoustic resonance at the overlap of EMR and FMR. Potential device applications for the composites are magnetic-field sensors, dual electric-field- and magnetic-field-tunable microwave and millimeter-wave devices, and miniature antennas.