Giant sharp converse magnetoelectric effect from the combination of a piezoelectric transformer with a piezoelectric/magnetostrictive laminated composite

Giant sharp converse magnetoelectric (CME) coefficient of 11.9 G/V is obtained in a heterostructure formed by combining a Rosen-type 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-0.3PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT) piezoelectric single-crystal transformer with a CME laminated composite of a length-magnetized Tb0.3Dy0.7Fe1.92 (Terfenol-D) magnetostrictive alloy plate sandwiched between two thickness-polarized, electroparallel-connected PMN-PT piezoelectric single-crystal plates. The observed giant sharp CME is found to originate from the step-up voltage-gain effect in the transformer and the resonance CME effect in the laminated composite. This heterostructure has promising applications in electrically controlled magnetic memory devices. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.