Differential configuration of 180 degrees anti-phase-modulated nonlinear magnetoelectric effect of parallel-placed dual FeNiMoSiB/Pb(Zr1-xTix)O-3 composites for magnetic field sensing

•A differential configuration of two parallel-placed ME units operated in nonlinear 180° anti-phase modulated mode.•The strong ME voltage at even order harmonics due to frequency doubling effect is greatly attenuated.•The weak dc/ac magnetic field from dc-0.9f (f is the frequency of the driving field) is recovered from the 1st harmonic response.•The sensitivity and the limit of detection of the differential ME dual-unit sensor are 176.1 μV/μT and 2 nT/√Hz at 10 Hz, respectively.