Influence of electric and magnetic poling on properties of Co/Nb codoped cobalt ferrite

Nb doped CoFe2O4 ferrites (Denoted: Co1.2Fe1.7Nb0.1O4) was prepared by conventional solid state reaction method at calcination temperature 1300 ͦ C. The tuning of both electrical and magnetic poling on the prepared samples shows suppression of (111) peak as observed in X-ray diffraction study implying that (111) is the easy magnetic axis in polycrystalline cobalt ferrite and it responds to both electric and magnetic field. Furthermore, the strain derivative of 84 × 10−9 Oe−1 at a field of 790 Oe is observed from magnetostriction measurement. Converse magnetoelectric effect was observed on an electrically poled sample where the sample got magnetized upon electrical poling. The value of linear magnetoelectric coefficient obtained was 150 mV/cm.Oe which is unusually high for a single phase material and at room temperature and this may be due to the d0 configuration of Nb. The observed linear magnetoelectric coefficient and room temperature PE loop was obtained suggesting that the Co1.2Fe1.7Nb0.1O4 material could be useful for magnetoelectric sensor applications.