Microstructure and properties of well-ordered multiferroic Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3)/CoFe(2)O(4) nanocomposites.
A nanofabrication technique combining pulsed laser deposition and a nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide membrane mask is being proposed to prepare various types of multiferroic nanocomposites, viz. periodically ordered CoFe(2)O(4) dots covered by a continuous Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) layer, Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) dots covered with CoFe(2)O(4), and Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3)/CoFe(2)O(4) bilayer heterostructure dots. By properly tuning the processing parameters, epitaxial nanodot-matrix composites can be obtained. For the composite consisting of CoFe(2)O(4) nanostructures covered by a Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) film, an unexpected out-of-plane magnetic easy axis induced by the top Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) layer and a uniform microdomain structure can be observed. The nanocomposites tested by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) exhibit strong piezoelectric signals, and they also display magnetoelectric coupling revealed by magnetic-field dependent capacitance measurement.
Gao
Xingsen
X
Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, D-06120 Halle, Germany. gaoxingsen@gmail.com
Rodriguez
Brian J
BJ
Liu
Lifeng
L
Birajdar
Balaji
B
Pantel
Daniel
D
Ziese
Michael
M
Alexe
Marin
M
Hesse
Dietrich
D