Giant Magnetoelastic Effects in BaTiO3-based Extrinsic Multiferroic Hybrids

Abstract: Extrinsic multiferroic hybrid structures consisting of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric layers elastically coupled to each other are promising due to their robust magnetoelectric effects even at room temperature. For a quantitative analysis of these magnetoelectric effects, a detailed knowledge of the piezoelectric and magnetoelastic behavior of both constituents as well as their mutual elastic coupling is mandatory. We here report on a theoretical and experimental study of the magnetic behavior of BaTiO3-based extrinsic multiferroic structures. An excellent agreement between molecular dynamics simulations and the experiments was found for Fe50Co50/BaTiO3 and Ni/BaTiO3 hybrid structures. This demonstrates that the magnetic behavior of extrinsic multiferroic hybrid structures can be determined by means of ab-initio calculations, allowing for the design of novel multiferroic hybrids.