Sol-gel-derived epitaxial nanocomposite thin films with large sharp magnetoelectric effect

Exploring the Magnetoelectric Coupling at the Composite Interfaces of FE/FM/FE Heterostructures

Multiferroic materials have attracted considerable attention as possible candidates for a wide variety of future microelectronic and memory devices, although robust magnetoelectric (ME) coupling between electric and magnetic orders at room temperature still remains difficult to achieve. In order to obtain robust ME coupling at room temperature, we studied the Pb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃/Ni_0.65Zn_0.35Fe₂O₄/Pb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ (PFN/NZFO/PFN) trilayer structure as a representative FE/FM/FE system. We report the ferroelectric, magnetic and ME properties of PFN/NZFO/PFN trilayer nanoscale heterostructure having dimensions 70/20/70 nm, at room temperature. The presence of only (00l) reflection of PFN and NZFO in the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and electron diffraction patterns in Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) confirm the epitaxial growth of multilayer heterostructure. The distribution of the ferroelectric loop area in a wide area has been studied, suggesting that spatial variability of ferroelectric switching behavior is low, and film growth is of high quality. The ferroelectric and magnetic phase transitions of these heterostructures have been found at ~575 K and ~650 K, respectively which are well above room temperature. These nanostructures exhibit low loss tangent, large saturation polarization (P_s ~ 38 µC/cm²) and magnetization (M_s ~ 48 emu/cm³) with strong ME coupling at room temperature revealing them as potential candidates for nanoscale multifunctional and spintronics device applications.

Self-Assembled Heteroepitaxial Oxide Nanocomposite for Photoelectrochemical Solar Water Oxidation

We report on spontaneously phase ordered heteroepitaxial SrTiO₃ (STO):ZnFe₂O₄ (ZFO) nanocomposite films that give rise to strongly enhanced photoelectrochemical solar water oxidation, consistent with enhanced photoinduced charge separation. The STO:ZFO nanocomposite yielded an enhanced photocurrent density of 0.188 mA/cm² at 1.23 V vs a reversible hydrogen electrode, which was 7.9- and 2.6-fold higher than that of the plain STO film and ZFO film cases under 1-sun illumination, respectively. The photoelectrode also produced stable photocurrent and Faradaic efficiencies of H₂ and O₂ formation that were more than 90%. Incident-photon-to-current-conversion efficiency measurements, Tauc plots, Mott-Schottky plots, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements proved that the strongly enhanced photogenerated charge separation resulted from vertically aligned pseudosingle crystalline components, epitaxial heterojunctions, and a staggered band alignment of the components of the nanocomposite films. This study presents a completely new avenue for efficient solar energy conversion applications.

Hierarchical templating of a BiFeO3-CoFe2O4 multiferroic nanocomposite by a triblock terpolymer film

A process route to fabricate templated BiFeO3/CoFe2O4 (BFO/CFO) vertical nanocomposites is presented in which the self-assembly of the BFO/CFO is guided using a self-assembled triblock terpolymer. A linear triblock terpolymer was selected instead of a diblock copolymer in order to produce a square-symmetry template, which had a period of 44 nm. The triblock terpolymer pattern was transferred to a (001) Nb:SrTiO3 substrate to produce pits that formed preferential sites for the nucleation of CFO crystals, in contrast to the BFO, which wetted the flat regions of the substrate. The crystallographic orientation and magnetic properties of the templated BFO/CFO were characterized.

Electrospun barium titanate/cobalt ferrite composite fibers with improved magnetoelectric performance

In this study, we use a versatile sol–gel based electrospinning technique to fabricate nanostructured barium titanate (BaTiO₃)/cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) composite fibers and analyze their magnetoelectric response.

Magnetoelectricity in CoFe2O4 nanocrystal-P(VDF-HFP) thin films

Transition metal ferrites such as CoFe2O4, possessing a large magnetostriction coefficient and high Curie temperature (Tc > 600 K), are excellent candidates for creating magnetic order at the nanoscale and provide a pathway to the fabrication of uniform particle-matrix films with optimized potential for magnetoelectric coupling. Here, a series of 0-3 type nanocomposite thin films composed of ferrimagnetic cobalt ferrite nanocrystals (8 to 18 nm) and a ferroelectric/piezoelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene), P(VDF-HFP), were prepared by multiple spin coating and cast coating over a thickness range of 200 nm to 1.6 μm. We describe the synthesis and structural characterization of the nanocrystals and composite films by XRD, TEM, HRTEM, STEM, and SEM, as well as dielectric and magnetic properties, in order to identify evidence of cooperative interactions between the two phases. The CoFe2O4 polymer nanocomposite thin films exhibit composition-dependent effective permittivity, loss tangent, and specific saturation magnetization (Ms). An enhancement of the effective permittivity and saturation magnetization of the CoFe2O4-P(VDF-HFP) films was observed and directly compared with CoFe2O4-polyvinylpyrrolidone, a non-ferroelectric polymer-based nanocomposite prepared by the same method. The comparison provided evidence for the observation of a magnetoelectric effect in the case of CoFe2O4-P(VDF-HFP), attributed to a magnetostrictive/piezoelectric interaction. An enhancement of Ms up to +20.7% was observed at room temperature in the case of the 10 wt.% CoFe2O4-P(VDF-HFP) sample.

Chemical solution deposition of epitaxial metal-oxide nanocomposite thin films

Epitaixial metal-oxide nanocomposite films, which possess interesting multifunctionality, have found applications in a wide range of devices. However, such films are typically produced by using high-vacuum equipment, like pulse-laser deposition, molecular-beam epitaxy, and chemical vapor deposition. As an alternative approach, chemical solution methods are not only cost-effective but also offer several advantages, including large surface coating, good control over stoichiometry, and the possible use of dopants. Therefore, in this Personal Account, we review the chemistry behind several of the main solution-based approaches, that is, sol-gel techniques, metal-organic decomposition, chelation, polymer-assisted deposition, and hydrothermal methods, including the seminal works that have been reported so far, to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of these different routes.

Hydrothermal synthesis and properties of NiFe2O4@BaTiO3 composites with well-matched interface

NiFe₂O₄@BaTiO₃ multiferroic composite particles were produced by a simple hydrothermal method in two steps: preparing NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles and then synthesizing core-shell nanocomposites. Multiferroic composite ceramics were sintered from these powders. X-ray diffraction, Raman scattering and energy dispersive x-ray analyses indicated that the core-shell composites with a NiFe₂O₄ core and BaTiO₃ shell were formed in the hydrothermal environment. Different types of sharp interfaces were self-assembled owing to the minimization of direct elastic energy. The saturation magnetization of the composites linearly increased with the NiFe₂O₄ content while the dielectric constant decreased. A dielectric peak appeared at around 460 °C because of the oxygen vacancies in the BaTiO₃ ceramics. It resulted in an enhancement of magnetic permeability in the composites, indicating magnetoelectric coupling that was also observed by direct magnetoelectric measurements.

Magnetoelectric coupling in ordered arrays of multilayered heteroepitaxial BaTiO₃/CoFe₂O₄ nanodots

Fully epitaxial BaTiO(3)/CoFe(2)O(4) ferroelectric/ferromagnetic multilayered nanodot arrays, a new type of magnetoelectric (ME) nanocomposite with both horizontal and vertical orderings, were fabricated via a stencil-derived direct epitaxy technique. By reducing the clamping effect, ferroelectric domain modification and distinct magnetization change proportional to different interfacial area around the BaTiO(3) phase transition temperatures were found, which may pave the way to quantitative introducing of ME coupling at nanoscale and build high density multistate memory devices.