Local probing of magnetoelectric coupling in BaTiO₃-Ni 1–3 composites

We report the fabrication of BaTiO₃-Ni magnetoelectric nanocomposites comprising of BaTiO₃ nanotubes surrounded by Ni matrix. BaTiO₃ nanotubes obtained from the hydrothermal transformation of TiO₂ have both inner and outer surfaces, which facilitates greater magnetoelectric coupling with the surrounding Ni matrix. The magnetoelectric coupling was studied by measuring the piezoelectric behavior in the presence of an in-plane direct magnetic field. A higher magnetoelectric voltage coefficient of 110 mV/cm·Oe was obtained, because of better coupling between Ni and BaTiO₃ through the walls of the nanotubes. Such nanocomposite developed directly on Ti substrate may lead to efficient fabrication of magnetoelectric devices.