Exotic Magnetic Properties and Enhanced Magnetoelectric Coupling in Fe3O4-BaTiO3 Heterostructures

Abstract

In the present work, magnetoelectric composites of Fe3O4 and BaTiO3 were successfully synthesized with 0–3 and 1–3 connectivity. In Fe3O4-BaTiO3 composites with 1–3 connectivity, the M-H loop analysis shows the presence of the isotropic point, whereas the M-T measurements of both samples reveal a unique downturn anomaly in the Curie-Weiss plot, indicating the presence of a Griffiths-like phase. The cluster glass nature of Fe3O4 nanostructures leads to the formation of exchange bias in the investigated ME composites. The different phase transitions of BaTiO3 are visible in the M(T) data as a consequence of magnetoelectric coupling between Fe3O4 and BaTiO3. The maximum magnetoelectric coupling coefficients observed for the Fe3O4-BaTiO3 composites with 0–3 and 1–3 connectivity are 8.34 mV cm−1 Oe−1 and 28.78 mV cm−1 Oe−1, respectively; both values are higher than that of the previously reported values of Fe3O4-BaTiO3 composites. Further, the magnetoelectric coupling coefficients of Fe3O4-BaTiO3 1–3 composites show an increasing trend towards the BaTiO3 rich phase.