Tunable room temperature magnetoelectric response of SmFeO3/poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanocomposite films

Abstract

We report the results of our studies on the tailored magnetoelectric response of a polymer based nanocomposite system comprising of varying SmFeO₃ filler volume percentage embedded in a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) matrix. The ME induced voltage was observed to increase with an increase in the SmFeO₃ filler concentration from 1% to 20%. For composite films with 20% SmFeO₃ concentration an induced voltage of ∼5.2 mV cm⁻¹ Oe⁻¹ was obtained at 1 kHz. Such a large magnetoelectric response is attributed to intensive interfacial interaction caused by dense packing of magnetostrictive SmFeO₃ in the piezoelectric matrix of PVDF. Further, poling of composite films by application of an electric field was observed to lead to a saturated magnetization hysteresis loop caused by reorientation of the magnetization of SmFeO₃. This electric field mediated manipulation of magnetic properties in SmFeO₃/PVDF holds great potential for low-energy-consuming spintronics devices.