Magnetoelectric effect in amorphous FeNiSiC ferromagnet-piezoelectric planar structures

The magnetoelectric (ME) effect is studied in composite two- and three-layer disk structures containing magnetostriction layers of an amorphous FeNiSiC ferromagnet and a lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric layer. Due to a high magnetostriction (∼33 × 10⁻⁶) and a low saturation field (∼200 Oe), an FeNiSiC layer has a high piezomagentic coefficient, which results in an effective ME coupling in low fields (∼25 Oe). The ME effect is ∼0.2 V cm⁻¹ Oe⁻¹ at a low frequency and increases to 11.9 and 13.2 V cm⁻¹ Oe⁻¹ when bending and in-plane mechanical vibrations are excited in a resonance manner in the structures at frequencies of ∼8.2 and ∼170.0 kHz, respectively. Structures containing amorphous FeNiSiC layers are promising for magnetic field transducers and electric energy generators and converters.