Effect of magnetic bias field on magnetoelectric coupling in magnetoelectric composites

The effect of dc magnetic bias field on the magnetoelectric coupling of a two-component magnetoelectric composite structure is investigated numerically using the finite-element method, in which the nonlinear magnetostress coupling for the magnetostrictive component is taken into account. It is shown that the magnetostress coupling coefficient increases first and then falls down with increasing of the bias field, and this behavior is argued to be responsible for the dependence of magnetoelectric yield on the bias field. The numerical modeling using the ANSYS5.5 finite element algorithm for the Tb0.3Dy0.7Fe1.9-epoxy/Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3-epoxy composite structure gives fairly consistent results with the experiments. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.