Nonlinear harmonic distortion effect in magnetoelectric laminate composites

Magnetoelectric (ME) harmonic distortion behavior in layered piezoelectric/magnetostrictive composites was investigated in this study. Taking into account the quadratic magnetostrictive effect, a nonlinear distortion coefficient was proposed to quantitatively describe the distortion of ME frequency response. It was revealed that the ME distortion was the competition result of linear piezomagnetic and quadratic magnetostrictive effect. Theoretical predictions of their dependences on dc bias field and frequency of ac drive field showed good agreement with experiment. Moreover, the diagram of competition mechanism for these two effects was established, demonstrating that the nonlinear distortion could be tuned by interplay between frequency doubling and mechanical resonance effect, which was significant for the development of tunable nonlinear ME devices.