Abstract
Nanocrystalline Co 2 MnSi Heusler alloy films were deposited on the PZN-PT substrates by a composition gradient sputtering method. It is revealed that this multiferroic heterostructure shows very strong magnetoelectric coupling, leading to continuously tunable microwave frequency characteristics by electric field. With the increase of electric field intensity from 0 to 6 kV/cm, the magnetic anisotropy field H K increases from 90 Oe to 182 Oe with an increment of 102%, corresponding to a ME coefficient of 15.3 Oe cm/kV; the ferromagnetic resonance frequency f FMR shifts from 3.38 to 4.82 GHz with an increment of Δf FMR = 1440 MHz or Δf FMR /f FMR = 43%; moreover, the damping constant α dramatically decreases from 0.035 to 0.018. These merits demonstrate that this nanocomposite multiferroic structure is promising in fabrication of tunable microwave components. Copyright © 2013 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.