Integrated Ferroelectrics, 82: 1–24, 2006 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN 1058-4587 print / 1607-8489 online DOI: 10.1080/10584580600872976 Enhanced Magnetoelectric Effect in (1 - x) Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 -x NiFe 1.9 Mn 0.1 O 4 Particulate Composites—Electrical and Magnetic Properties Rashed Adnan Islam and Shashank Priya * Automation and Robotics Research Institute, Material Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA ABSTRACT In this paper, the ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and magnetoelectric properties of lead zir- conate titanate and nickel ferrite composite (1 − x) Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 -x NiFe 1.9 Mn 0.1 O 4 (PZT–NFM, x = 0.03, 0.05, 0.1) are reported. The magnetoelectric composites were fabricated using the process based on controlled precipitation route, a combination of conventional mixed oxide sintering and thermal treatment. The thermal treatment con- stituted of annealing at high temperature close to the calcination temperature followed by aging at lower temperatures. The phase diagram for the system PZT–NFM was not investigated in this study but an estimation of the phase fields for the PZT-rich end was conducted using the X-ray diffraction. Microstructure of the fabricated samples was analyzed using the X-ray mapping in SEM. The density of the composites sin- tered in the temperature range of 1100–1125 ◦ C was in the range of 7.2–7.8 gm/cm 3 , increasing with NFM content. The magnitude of piezoelectric constant (d 33 ) and the piezoelectric voltage constant decreased with increasing NFM content. The magnitude of magnetoelectric (ME) voltage coefficient (dE/dH) increased with increasing NFM content. The 0.9 PZT–0.1 NFM samples sintered at 1125 ◦ C exhibited ME coefficient of 78 mV/cm · Oe. This magnitude increased to 105 mV/cm · Oe after the thermal treatment (annealing and aging). It is expected that this enhancement is due to the change in the size of the NFM phase. Keywords: Magnetoelectric; perovskite; lead zirconate titanate; nickel ferrite; piezo- electric; ferroelectric; ferromagnetic I. INTRODUCTION Magnetoelectric is a composite property and needs biphasic surrounding to exhibit the complex behavior. Magnetoelectric (ME) materials become Received May 25, 2006. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail: spriya@uta.edu 1