title: Effect of strain on ferroelectric and magnetic behavior in Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3-based magnetoelectric heterostructures.
abstract: In this paper, the "sandwich" structured magnetoelectric composite films of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/ NiFe2O4/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 and Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/CoFe2O4/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 are epitaxially grown on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The crystalline quality and microstructures of these heterostructures are investigated by X-ray diffraction technique. The effects of strain on the ferroelectric, magnetic and magnetoelectric coupling properties of these thin films are systematically studied. The results show that the strain effect induced by lattice mismatch between the ferroelectric/ferromagnetic layers plays an important role in the ferroelectric and magnetic properties of these composite films. Compared to the strained Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/ CoFe2O4/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 heterostructure, improved ferroelectric properties with an out-of-plane polarization (2P(r)) of 34.2 microC/cm2 and electric coercivity field of 158 kV/cm are obtained in the strain-free Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/NiFe2O4/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 heterostructure. The ME measurement results not only show that the strain induced by lattice mismatch has great influence on the ME behavior, but also provide an understanding of the multilayers with full control over the interface structure at the atomic-scale.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronics Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: H Z
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Dai