Multiferroic Composites for Magnetic Field Sensors & Microstructural, Magnetic and Optical properties of ZnO:Mn thin films

Multiferroics with two or more ferroic (ferroelectric, ferro/ferri/anti-ferromagnetic, ferroelastic) orderings have attracted considerable interests in recent years.  Single-phase multiferroics are rare and their magnetoelectric (ME) responses are either weak or occur at temperatures too low for practical applications. Ferromagnetic-piezoelectric composites, however, show strong ME coupling at ambient temperatures. The ME effect here is a product-property mediated by elastic deformation. The composites show a rich variety of phenomena including giant low-frequency ME interactions. 

This presentation will focus on recent developments in the physics and applications of composite multiferroics.  The discussion will include our work on functionally graded composites for use as ultra sensitive magnetic field sensors. 

Investigation of microstructural, magnetic and optical properties of ZnO:Mn (0.01 £ x £ 0.25) epitaxial diluted magnetic semiconducting (DMS) thin films prepared by Pulse Laser Deposition Technique. This presentation is focused on growth and characterization of DMS thin films.