Modelling the effect of particle arrangement on the magnetoelectric response of a polymer multiferroic film

Abstract

In this work the behavior of a three-component composite multiferroic (MF)—an electrically neutral polymer matrix filled with a mixture of piezoelectric and ferromagnetic micrometer-size particles—is investigated in the framework of a simple mesoscopic model. The main issue of interest is the electric polarization generated in a thin film of such an MF in response to a quasistatic magnetic field. The driving mechanism of the effect is rotation of magnetically hard particles inside the matrix which, in turn, transfers the arisen mechanical stresses to the piezoelectric grains. The model MF film is constructed as a periodic set of 2D cells each of which contains one piezoelectric and two ferromagnetic particles. The numerical simulations are performed by means of finite element method on a single cell which, however, is incorporated in an infinite film by means of periodic boundary conditions. The problem of how the spatial arrangement of the particles and the orientation of the anisotropy axis of the piezoelectric one affect the magnetoelectric response is discussed.