Magnetoelectric sensor excitations in hexaferrite films

Saba Zare, Jake Rabinowitz, Hessam Izadkhah, Sivasubramanian Somu, and Carmine Vittoria
Citation: Applied Physics Letters 106, 193502 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4921079
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4921079
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/19?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
Articles you may be interested in
Note: Resonance magnetoelectric interactions in laminate of FeCuNbSiB and multilayer piezoelectric stack for
magnetic sensor
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 86, 096109 (2015); 10.1063/1.4931679
Magnetoelectric sensor excitations in hexaferrite slabs
J. Appl. Phys. 117, 214506 (2015); 10.1063/1.4922125
Effects of cobalt substitutions on the magnetoelectric coupling of M-type hexaferrite films
Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 142905 (2015); 10.1063/1.4916102
First observation of magnetoelectric effect in M-type hexaferrite thin films
J. Appl. Phys. 113, 17C710 (2013); 10.1063/1.4795721
Room temperature magnetoelectric effects in bulk poly-crystalline materials of M- and Z-type hexaferrites
J. Appl. Phys. 113, 17C703 (2013); 10.1063/1.4793606

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
155.33.16.124 On: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:18:57

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 106, 193502 (2015)

Magnetoelectric sensor excitations in hexaferrite films

Saba Zare, Jake Rabinowitz, Hessam Izadkhah, Sivasubramanian Somu,
and Carmine Vittoria
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, 360, Huntington Ave.,
Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

(Received 2 December 2014; accepted 2 May 2015; published online 12 May 2015)
We developed techniques for H- and E-field sensors utilizing single phase magnetoelectric (ME)
hexaferrite thin films in the frequency range of 1 kHz to 10 MHz. The technique incorporating solenoid coils and multi-capacitors bank was developed to probe the physics and properties of ME hexaferrite film and explore ME effects for sensor detections and tunable device applications. For
H-field sensing, we obtained sensitivity of 4  104 V/Gm and for E-field sensing the sensitivity
was 103 Gm/V. Tunability of up to 6% was achieved for tunable inductor applications. The proposed fabrication designs lend themselves to significant (106) improvements in sensitivity and
C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4921079]
tunability. V

Recently, bulk single phase magnetoelectric (ME) hexaferrites18 have exhibited high ME coupling, a, at room temperature. Thin films of ME hexaferrites exhibiting high a
values were recently deposited by Mohebbi and Vittoria.9 The
ME effect implies that the application of a magnetic field, H,
induces an electric polarization, P, and in the converse case
applying an electric field, E, magnetization, M, in the material
is induced. The required voltages to generate sufficient E
fields to induce measurable ME effects in bulk slabs may be
low (10 V) for E normal to the slab plane, but relatively
high (1 KV) for E in the slab plane. However, for ME films
the required voltages to induce measurable ME effects is very
high for any direction of E, unless voltages can be applied
only across the film thickness. This means that a buffer conductive layer10 needs to be deposited between substrate and
ME film. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that
interfacial effects between substrate and film degrade the
quality of the film10 and, therefore, reduce the ME coupling a.
As such, we have opted to apply E fields in the plane of a ME
film in order to maintain film quality as high as possible. In
order to reduce required voltages to generate E fields to
induce measurable ME effects in films, we have developed a
technique to apply E fields in the film plane. The technique
involves the deposition of N parallel metallic strips separated
by a distance d so that there are N  1 capacitors connected in
series over the surface of the film. The voltage is applied
equally across each capacitor and, therefore, the E field is uniform in the film plane. Clearly, as d decreases, the required
voltage to generate the necessary E fields is lowered as well.
In this paper, we explore the technique from 1 kHz to
10 MHz for the purpose of investigating potential applications
using ME films for magnetic field and electric field sensors or
any tunable devices. Potential applications include biomedical
applications, such as Magnetoencephalography (MEG) or
Magnetocardiography (MCG),11,12 for example. Two types of
experimental techniques have been designed and implemented
for testing. In the first technique, we refer to it as a direct
method, an ac magnetic field, H, generated via a solenoid
coil, induced an electric field, E, or polarization, P. These
induced E fields are measured via a multi-capacitor detection
0003-6951/2015/106(19)/193502/4/$30.00

scheme. The second technique, referred to as the converse

method, an ac voltage or electric field, E, is applied via multicapacitors and the induced magnetization, M, was detected
with the use of a solenoid coil. In these two sets of experiments, the emphasis has been to develop planar device techniques to utilize the ME effect in single phase films for sensor
or tunable applications.
A thin film M-type hexaferrite sample, SrCo2 Ti2 Fe8 O19 ,
on sapphire substrate was utilized in all of our described sensors. The ME single phase film was characterized in previous
vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) experiments yielding
a value of 6  109 Sec/m.9 Since the sample shape was that
of a thin film, voltages as high as 1001000 V were needed
to apply E fields of sufficient magnitude normal to the film
plane to induce measurable ME effects in films. Typically,
the thickness of our films was about 1 lm (lateral dimensions
were 10  10 mm2). The sapphire substrate thickness was
500 lm. Hence, even with relatively high voltages applied
across both film and substrate, the resultant E field in the
film would be too small to induce ME effects in the film.
Clearly, application of high voltages is incompatible with
planar device applications, especially integrated with semiconductor devices. We have devised a technique, whereby
the application of voltages are relatively small (1 V) and
still the E-field strong enough to induce ME effects in films.
The technique involves applying E in the plane of the film of
sufficient uniformity and still maintain voltage requirements
relatively low to induce ME effects in film devices. For E in
the film plane, parallel metallic strips were deposited on the
plane of the film. Thus, detection (direct) or application (converse) of E may simply be accomplished using multicapacitors (capacitance is between two successive metal
strips). In our circuit, there are three capacitors to generate
or detect E in the plane of the thin film. The width of the conductive strips was 1.5 mm and the gap between strips
0.5 mm. A solenoid coil was used to detect (converse) or
apply an H-field (direct). The dimensions of the solenoid
were 2.5  10  0.5 cm3 and the number of turns was 45.
The voltage drop across each capacitor was the same.
This was accomplished by a simple voltage divider circuit

106, 193502-1

C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC

V

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
155.33.16.124 On: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:18:57

193502-2

Zare et al.

connected across the ac source voltage. Thus, each capacitor

was connected to a resistor of 100 kX which was much lower
than the internal capacitor resistance (10 MX). Initially,
the parallel strips were deposited only on the sapphire substrate with the dimensions of the metallic strips identical to
the ones deposited on the ME film. Indeed, rf background
signals were detected on the solenoid coil upon application
of an ac voltage to the multi-capacitors. We concluded that
the rf pickup may be due to stray or parasitic capacitance
between the solenoid wires and the metallic strips on the substrate. However, by encapsulating the multi-capacitors or
parallel strips inside copper sheets connected to voltage
ground, it reduced spurious or rf pickup voltages by a factor
of 106 at 1 kHz and by 103 at 10 MHz. In addition, the parallel metal strips or capacitive electrodes and the solenoid
wiring were electrically insulated from the shielding copper
sheets. Also, the 100 kX resistors used in the voltage divider
circuit were physically separated from the solenoid coil to
reduce rf pickup. Wire connections between capacitor terminals and external 100 kX resistors were aligned so that whatever current flow in these wires was directed perpendicular
to the solenoid cross area so that H fields generated would be
parallel to the coil wiring and, therefore, negligible rf pickup,
see Fig. 1.
In the multi-capacitors detection scheme, there are several conductive strip lines (four lines in our device) on the
film plane parallel to each other (see Fig. 1) with a distance
of 0.5 mm between two successive strips. The film was poled
or magnetically biased, Hb , by dc magnetic field of 200 Oe
perpendicular to hex, ac field excited by the solenoid coils.
Excited or applied and biased are labeled with subscripts
ex and b, respectively. Fields that are detected are labeled by the subscript d. The axis of the solenoid was parallel to hex and in the plane of the film. Hb was applied
perpendicular to hex , but also in the plane of the film. The
spacing between capacitors and the resistor across each

FIG. 1. (a) Schematic of the ME sensor with parallel electrodes on top of the
ME hexaferrite film; (b) voltage divider (detecting circuit) and the equivalent circuit model of the parallel strips configuration after connecting to the
metallic strips in the plane of the ME film with directions of hex, Ed, Pd,S, e,
and m. R 100 kX, Ro 10 kX.

Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 193502 (2015)

capacitor were designed to be the same value for all the

capacitors so that the detected ac voltage measured across
each capacitor was the same. Fig. 1 shows the voltage divider (detecting circuit) and the equivalent circuit model of
the multi-capacitors detection method.
In order to obtain the value of C, we plotted Vout/Vin
versus frequency, in which Vout is the output voltage, and
Vin is the ac voltage applied across the coil. We may consider this gain graph as a Bode plot with a zero at 1 MHz in
which 1/R x C, where R 100 kX. C was calculated to be
C 1.6 pF.
For polycrystalline ME materials, the fundamental interaction between the induced polarization, Pd, and hi is given
as
Pd a hi ;
where a is the ME linear coupling and it is a scalar quantity.13 Pd and/or electric field, Ed , induced by an internal ac
magnetic field, hi, are directed in the film plane and hi is parallel to Ed or Pd . For thin films, hi  hex. The detected polaror
ization may be determined from either P Ic=jx
A
,
where
V
is
the
detected
voltage
across
each
caP e0 ve Vc
C
d
pacitor, and Ed VC/d. A is the cross area of the capacitor
and d is separation width between electrodes. IC is the current flow through the capacitor, x is the radial frequency,
and ve is the electric susceptibility. The strain, e, may be
deduced from the relationship e DEd, where D is the piezoelectric strain coefficient. In the direct method, strain is generated with the application of hex, since the film is
magnetostrictive. Thus, strain is the linkage between the
magnetic and electrical systems. We estimate the generated
strain in the film magnetic system from the relation
e 3km=MS ;
where k  20  106 (Ref. 14) is the magnetostriction constant for polycrystalline material, m is the ac magnetization
amplitude (m vmhex), vm is the magnetic susceptibility,
and MS is the saturation magnetization.9 Approximating m/
MS  0.01, we obtain e  0.6  106. Assuming this strain is
transferred over to the electrical system yields D  6  1011
m/V. Using the following measured parameters d 0.5 mm,
ve 15,9 and hex 16 a/m (at 1 kHz), we have calculated,
for example (see above relationships) Pd 107 C/m2 and
Ed 700 V/m. However, very careful interpretation of d
needs to be exercised here. Separation of two electrodes as
shown in Fig. 1 does not represent a conventional geometry
of a capacitor. For now, we have approximated d as simply
the separation distance between parallel strips.
The H field sensitivity of the multiple capacitors detection or multi-strips detection is defined as the ratio of the
detected electric field in the plane of the film over the internal magnetic field sensed by the ME material, hi , S Ed =hi
which is depicted in Fig. 2 with unit of V/Gm. It is noted
that Pd scales as the sensitivity, since Pd is proportional to
Ed. In Fig. 2, the frequency dependence can be explained by
the fact that the induced or detected electric field, Ed, is proportional to the strain excited magnetostrictively via the ac
excitation of the magnetization, m. However, m is also proportional to the magnetic susceptibility. At low frequencies

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
155.33.16.124 On: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:18:57

193502-3

Zare et al.

Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 193502 (2015)

FIG. 2. Sensitivity vs. frequency for the multi-capacitors detection method.

in the regime being investigated, magnetic susceptibility

increases with frequency assuming that there are no zero
field FMR, domain wall resonances, and magneto-acoustic
resonances. With these extraneous excitations, Ed would
increase more strongly with frequency. We believe that by
narrowing the gap spacing between strips the detected electric field can be enhanced as much as a factor of 1000 or
more and, therefore, increase sensitivity by that factor.
The converse circuit configuration for multi-capacitors
excitations is very similar to the direct method of excitation
(Fig. 1), but the applied and detected signals are interchanged. An ac voltage of 1 V (peak to peak) was applied to
a voltage divider resistors bank. The exciting and detected
fields are both in the film plane and parallel to each other. In
this case, the strain is generated in the electrical system (piezoelectric) and transferred over to the magnetic system
(magnetostriction). The ME effect allows for changes in M
(m) due to Eex via the strain. An ac voltage or electric field,
E, is applied or excited to the ME film via the multicapacitors and the change in magnetization, m, is detected as
a voltage at the output of a solenoid coil. The induced magnetization is assumed to be in the plane of the film, since E is
also in the film plane (see Fig. 1). The magnetic field radiating external to the ME film (due to m) is rather non-uniform
much like a dipole field pattern. The voltage at the output of
the solenoid coil is due to the current flow in the solenoid
wiring as induced by the non-uniform magnetic field external
to the film. The current flow amplitude may be estimated
from applying conventional Maxwell boundary conditions.
However, this type of calculation is time consuming and
complex. We present an estimate of such voltage as represented in the determination of coupling between voltage
actually detected (Vout) at the output of the solenoid coil and
the maximum voltage possible (Vmax).

compactness are important factors to coupling and sensitivity.

The sensitivity of the detector is defined by us as the magnetic
flux density field, Bd At =A, detected by the coil divided by
the applied or excitation electric field across the single capacitor, S Bd /Eex in units of Gm/V. A is the cross area of solenoid, Ut Vout =2pf , and f is the frequency. The sensitivity of
the converse experiment was measured to be S 103 Gm/V
and found to be constant with respect to frequency. The gain
factor, G, defined as Vout, divided by Vex or Vin, the exciting
input voltage across the capacitor; see Fig. 3 for the plot of G.
In Fig. 3, there are two competing factors. One factor is simply
the converse of what we discussed concerning Fig. 2, and,
therefore, the detected ac magnetic field hd is inversely proportional with susceptibility and decreases with frequency. This
factor is important at lower frequencies. The other factor is
that the output voltage of the solenoid scales as the impedance
of the inductance. Hence, at high frequencies, we expect this
factor to predominate.
Time dependence measurements of induced magnetization have been reported in bulk ME hexaferrite materials in
Refs. 1517. We compare our sensitivity measurements to
measurements reported in Refs. 1517. In Refs. 15 and 16, in
a converse experiment, the authors15 applied a pulsed electric
field of amplitude of 2 MV/m at frequency of 0.01 Hz inducing a magnetization change of 2 G using bulk Z-Type
Hexaferrite sample. Defining sensitivity as the ratio of the
magnetization change to the applied electric field we obtain
sensitivity as 106 Gm/V. In Ref. 16, the same measurement technique was utilized on bulk Y-Type Hexaferrite at
0.04 Hz at room temperature. They applied a pulsed E-field of
1 MV/m and the induced magnetization reversal was measured to be 5 G yielding a sensitivity of 0.5  105 Gm/V.
Finally, in Ref. 17 the authors have performed the converse
experiment on single crystal Y-type bulk Hexaferrite material.
Applying a triangular E-field of 1 MV/m, they measured a
sensitivity of 0.27  103 Gm/V. The measurements were
performed at 15 K. Conversion factor for magnetization as
defined in Refs. 1517 in units of G (gauss) is 4pb/X, where
b 9.27  1021 emu and X is the volume of the unit cell in
cm3. Whereas, in Refs. 1517, the induced magnetization
changes are detected by standard VSM technique, we utilized
in situ coil detection lending itself to planar fabrication or IC
circuitry. Hence, we categorize our measurements as dynamic
field measurements and the ones in Refs. 1517 as static field
measurements. We measured sensitivity to be 103 Gm/V
using same definition of sensitivity as above.

Coupling Vout =Vmax ;

q
where Vmax i r 2 xL2 ;
i 2aE=l0 n;
and

n  2000=m:

For f 1 kHz, r 4 X, L 70 lh, and the number of turns

equal to 45, we calculate coupling 0.5. At higher frequencies,
the coupling is smaller. Vmax was estimated on the basis that
the film was in intimate contact with the solenoid wires. It is
obvious that proximity between solenoid wiring and film and

FIG. 3. The gain of the sensor, output voltage on the solenoid coil divided
by the applied voltage on each small capacitor between two electrodes.

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
155.33.16.124 On: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:18:57

193502-4

Zare et al.

FIG. 4. Tunability of the solenoid coil as an inductor by applying voltage

across the parallel strips on film and coil.

Finally, if we consider the solenoid coil as an inductor

the inductance of the coil can be tuned by applying the excitation voltage, Vex , both across the single capacitor and the
solenoid coil. We have defined tunability as the ratio of the
total flux detected by the solenoid coil, Ut , divided by the
flux generated by the solenoid coil if driven by Vex . The flux
generated by the coil in the absence of ME material is Li,
and i is the current generated by Vex , for example. In Fig. 4,
tunability reached a value of 6% at a frequency of 1 MHz.
Clearly, tunability depends strongly on the coupling factor
for tunable devices, see definition above.
We have demonstrated that it may be possible to apply
reasonable electric field strengths (2000 V/m) with relatively low voltages (1 V) utilizing multi-capacitor excitations in the plane of a ME single phase film. In particular, a
direct method of excitation was used to measure sensitivity in
the range of 4  104 to about 1 V/Gm. However, we believe
that the separation between parallel electrodes can easily be
made to be closer to each other (for our experiment was about
0.5 mm) by a factor of 1000 times or more enhancing the sensitivity. With improved values of sensitivity it may be possible to detect magnetic fields as small as pico Tesla at about
100 Hz for the applications of MEG or MCG applications.
In the converse method, coupling was measured to be
less than one for multi-capacitors excitation. We believe
that with improved coupling sensitivity, tunability, and
voltage gain may also improve. Sensitivity was measured to
be about 103 Gm/V, and the voltage gain G was measured
to be above one. It is remarkable that G values may be
greater than unity which can improve by simple redesigning of spacing between electrodes or increasing the
number of turns in the solenoid coil. In this paper, we report
the generation of the electric field of 2000 V/m in the plane
of the film with the application of 1 V over the capacitor

Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 193502 (2015)

gap of 0.5 mm. If the gap were to be reduced to 1 lm, for

example, one would generate 10 000 V/m with the application of only 10 mV across the gap. The same E-field would
be excited over N 103 parallel lines using a voltage source
of 10 V. However, N can be increased considerably, if
current source as low as 1 mA were to replace voltage sources. The advantage of current sources is that low resistance
values can be connected across the gaps. It is important to
note that the E-field is being applied in the film plane which
can be a challenge utilizing low power sources. Finally, inductor tunability of about 0.05%6% were measured for
parallel strips excitation in ME hexaferrite films. At
10 MHz, it increased to 60%. For integrated circuitry, the
thin film or planar geometry is necessary for fabrication
purpose. We believe that integrated circuits based on ME
thin films are very feasible.
We wish to acknowledge and thank the support of the
NSF, DMR 1002543 and ECCS 1405108.
1

Y. Kitagawa, Y. Hiraoka, T. Honda, T. Ishikura, H. Nakamura, and T.

Kimura, Nat. Mater. 9, 797 (2010).
L. Wang, D. Wang, Q. Cao, Y. Zheng, H. Xuan, J. Gao, and Y. Du, Sci.
Rep. 2, 223 (2012).
3
K. Ebnabbasi, C. Vittoria, and A. Widom, Phys. Rev. B 86, 024430 (2012).
4
K. Ebnabbasi, M. Mohebbi, and C. Vittoria, J. Appl. Phys. 113, 17C703
(2013).
5
Y. Tokunaga, Y. Kaneko, D. Okuyama, S. Ishiwata, T. Arima, S.
Wakimoto, K. Kakurai, Y. Taguchi, and Y. Tokura, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105,
257201 (2010).
6
M. Soda, T. Ishikura, H. Nakamura, Y. Wakabayashi, and T. Kimura,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 087201 (2011).
7
S. Ishiwata, D. Okuyama, K. Kakurai, M. Nishi, Y. Taguchi, and Y.
Tokura, Phys. Rev. B 81, 174418 (2010).
8
K. Taniguchi, N. Abe, Sh. Ohtani, H. Umetsu, and T. Arima, Appl. Phys.
Express 1, 031301 (2008).
9
M. Mohebbi, K. Ebnabbasi, and C. Vittoria, J. Appl. Phys. 113, 17C710
(2013).
10
M. Mohebbi and C. Vittoria, Multi-layer deposition of conductive oxide
and ME ferrite, MRS Fall Meeting, Boston, 2013.
11
C. N. Johnson, P. D. D. Schwindt, and M. Weisend, Phys. Med. Biol.
58(17), 6065 (2013).
12
R. Jahns, R. Knochel, H. Greve, E. Woltermann, E. Lage, and E. Quandt,
in IEEE International Workshop on Medical Measurement and
Applications (IEEE, 2011), pp. 107110.
13
C. Vittoria, S. Somu, and A. Widom, Phys. Rev. B 89(13), 134413
(2014).
14
H. Landolt and R. B
ornstein, Landolt-Bornstein: Numerical Data and
Functional Relationships in Science and Technology (Springer, Berlin,
1982).
15
K. Okumura, K. Haruki, T. Ishikura, S. Hirose, and T. Kimura, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 103, 032906 (2013).
16
S. Hirose, K. Haruki, A. Ando, and T. Kimura, Appl. Phys. Lett. 104,
022907 (2014).
17
Y. Sh. Chai, S. Kwon, S. H. Chun, I. Kim, B. G. Jeon, K. H. Kim, and S.
Lee, Nat. Commun. 5, 4208 (2014).
2

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
155.33.16.124 On: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:18:57