Magnetostrictive/Piezoelectric Magnetoelectric Transducer with an Elastic Substrate

The magnetoelectric (ME) effect of magnetostrictive Terfenol-D (Tb_1-xDy_xFe_2-y) and piezoelectric Pb(Zr_1-xTi_x)O₃ plates bonded on a beryllium bronze substrate is reported. The substrate severs as frequency determining element and dominates the Q-factor of the oscillator. The device can be regard as a driven damped system. Its resonance occurs at multi-modes when the Terfenol-D plate oscillates at frequencies near the allowed frequencies of the substrate, producing a much greater response to finite AC magnetic field input. Our devices show that: (i) there are multiple ME response peaks; (ii) the maximum ME voltage coefficient achieves 1.552 V/Oe ; (iii) the maximum output power in per unit volume of transducing material is 153 muW / cm³ Oe ; and (iv) the quality factor is much higher than that of previously reported laminate structures.