Room-temperature multiferroic (magnetoelectric–magnetodielectric) coupling properties of hybrid microwave-sintered (1 − x)BaZr0.25Ti0.75O3 − xCo0.9Ni0.1Fe2O4 lead-free electromagnetic composites

This paper reports on the systematic investigation of the room-temperature magnetoelectric and magnetodielectric coupling coefficients on adding ferromagnetic phase (xCo0.9Ni0.1Fe2O4, where x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) to the non-toxic lead-free ferroelectric phase (BaZr0.25Ti0.75O3) prepared via efficient, ultrafast, eco-friendly hybrid microwave sintering at 1100 °C. Rietveld’s refinement of the observed diffraction patterns reflects mixed-phase cubic and tetragonal crystal symmetries with space group Pm3m and P4mm for the ferroelectric phase and cubic Fd-3m for a ferromagnetic phase in each composite which was further verified through micro-Raman spectroscopy. Ferroelectric-ferrite composite at x = 0.2, i.e., 0.8(BaZr0.25Ti0.75O3) − 0.2(Co0.9Ni0.1Fe2O4), had highest magnetoelectric and magnetodielectric coupling coefficients α_ME= 2.71 mV/cm Oe and MD (