SGER: Enhanced Magnetoelectric Behavior in Piezoelectric/Magnetostrictive Composites via Magnetic Field-Assisted Processing

The research objective of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) award is to understand the effect of applied magnetic field during the thermal processing of thin films. Specifically, the impact of magnetic field-assisted processing on piezoelectric/magnetostrictive (PZT/Terfenol-D) thin film composites will be explored. PZT and Terfenol-D are highly anisotropic materials and therefore significant property enhancement in each material is expected from enhanced texturing. The observed magnetoelectric effect in the composite system is due to strain coupling at the interface. Thus, the thin film texturing independent of the substrate obtained here will allow an arbitrarily large number of layers to be deposited. More layers will result in more interfaces, leading to an even greater enhancement of the composite properties. Furthermore, the selected processing routes are scalable to industrial manufacturing. Deliverables include a deeper understanding of the role of magnetism in materials processing and new processing paths for functional single phase and composite multiferroics. This research will also offer a multidisciplinary research experience for two graduate research assistants in engineering.

If successful, the results of this research will demonstrate heteroepitaxy-like properties via a low-cost, high speed manufacturing process. This will result in compact, cost-effective devices that are capable of accomplishing sophisticated magnetoelectric tasks. Example applications include high sensitivity, portable, magnetic field sensors (for example in healthcare applications such as brain activity monitoring), terrestrial magnetic field energy harvesters, etc. Devices made possible by the research will offer the advantages of planar fabrication, a flat initial state, and monolithic composition. The results will be disseminated to allow the creation of such commercial devices. Graduate engineering students will benefit through involvement in multidisciplinary research.