Interface Effects on the Magnetoelectric Properties of Magnetoelectric Multilayer Composites

The magnetoelectric (ME) effect is studied in the terfenol-D/Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃ (PZT) multilayer composites prepared by silver epoxy. A theoretical model reveals that the ME voltage coefficient α_E,31 is a constant when the total thickness of the multilayer composites is the same. However, the interface defects exist in multilayer composites in experiments and the interface energy loss increases with increasing the stacking periodicity, which leads to the gradual decrease of the ME voltage coefficient α_E, 31. The resonant frequency of terfenol-D/PZT multilayer composites is independent of the stacking periodicity and agrees well with the predicted one. One can achieve a strong ME coupling by improving the interface conditions to meet the needs for practical applications.