Magnetoelectric effect in (BiFeO₃)_x–(BaTiO₃)_1-x solid solutions

The aim of the present work was to study magnetoelectric effect (ME) in (BiFeO₃)_x-(BaTiO₃)_1-x solid solutions in terms of technological conditions applied in the samples fabrication process. The rapidly growing interest in these materials is caused by their multiferroic behaviour, i.e. coexistence of both electric and magnetic ordering. It creates possibility for many innovative applications, e.g. in steering the magnetic memory by electric field and vice versa. The investigated samples of various chemical compositions (i.e. x = 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9) were prepared by the solid-state sintering method under three sets of technological conditions differing in the applied temperature and soaking time. Measurements of the magnetoelectric voltage coefficient α_ME were performed using a dynamic lock-in technique. The highest value of α_ME was observed for 0.7BiFeO₃-0.3BaTiO₃ solid solution sintered at the highest temperature (T = 1153 K) after initial electrical poling despite that the soaking time was reduced 10 times in this case.