Towards Fabrication of Planar Magnetoelectric Devices: Coil-Free Excitation of Ferromagnet-Piezoelectric Heterostructures

Magnetoelectric (ME) effects in composite ferromagnet-piezoelectric (FM/PE) heterostructures realize the mutual transformation of alternating magnetic and electric fields, and are used to create magnetic field sensors, actuators, inductors, gyrators, and transformers. The ME effect in composite structures is excited by an alternating magnetic field, which is created using volumetric electromagnetic coils. The coil increases the size, limits the operating frequencies, and complicates the manufacture of devices. In this work, we propose to excite the ME effect in composite heterostructures using a new coil-free excitation system, similar to a "magnetic capacitor ". The system consists of parallel electrodes integrated into the heterostructure, through which an alternating current flows. Modeling and measurements have shown that the excitation magnetic field is localized mainly between the electrodes of the magnetic capacitor and has a fairly uniform spatial distribution. Monolithic FM/PE heterostructures of various designs with FM layers of amorphous Metglas alloy or nickel-zinc ferrite and PE layers of lead zirconate titanate piezoceramic were fabricated and investigated. The magnitude of the ME effect in such structures is comparable to the magnitude of the ME effect in structures excited by volumetric coils. However, the low impedance of the coil-free excitation system makes it possible to increase the operating frequency, reducing the size of ME devices and the power consumption. The use of coil-free excitation opens up the possibility of creating planar ME devices, and accelerates their integration into modern electronics and microsystem technology.