Significant role of antiferromagnetic GdFeO₃ on multiferroism of bilayer thin films

Inversion of BaTiO₃ and GdFeO₃ thin films in bilayer configuration has been deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique. A significant effect of strain on thin film has been observed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Tensile strain of 1.04% and 0.23% has been calculated by X-ray diffraction results. Higher polarization value 70.4 μC cm⁻² has been observed by strained BaTiO₃ film in GdFeO₃/BaTiO₃ bilayer film. Strained GdFeO₃ film in BaTiO₃/GdFeO₃ bilayer configuration exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour showed maximum magnetization value of 50 emu gm⁻¹. Magnetoelectric coupling coefficient of bilayer films have been carried out by dynamic method. Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling 2500 mV cm⁻¹-Oe has been obtained for BaTiO₃/GdFeO₃ bilayer film. The high ME coupling of the BaTiO₃/GdFeO₃ bilayer film reveals strong interfacial coupling between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic dipoles. On magnetoelectric coupling coefficient effect of ferromagnetic GdFeO₃ layer has a significant role. Such high value of ME coupling may be useful in realization of magnetoelectric RAM (MeRAM) application. (paper)