Electrically tunable microwave properties in NiFeTa/[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.68-[PbTiO3]0.32(011) magnetoelectric heterostructures

Abstract

The studied magnetoelectric heterostructure consisting of a NiFeTa thin film grown onto a [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]0.68-[PbTiO3]0.32(011) (PMN-PT) substrate was prepared by using gradient-composition sputtering technique. A shorted micro-strip transmission-line perturbation method using a vector network analyzer was employed to study the electrical field modulation of microwave properties of the NiFeTa/PMN-PT heterostructure. It was found that the resonance frequency of the sample can be tuned from 1.72 GHz to 2.05 GHz when the applied electrical field is varied from −6 kV/cm to 6 kV/cm. Moreover, we experimentally observed a quasi-linear relationship between the resonance frequency and the electrical field in a wide range of electrical field from 0 kV/cm to 6 kV/cm in the heterostructure, which is suggested to be useful for applications. All the results are discussed taking into account the reverse magnetostrictive effect and the reverse piezoelectric effect.