Studies on Electrical Properties and Magnetoelectric Effect of (x)Ni0.8Cu0.2Fe2O4 + (1?x)Ba0.8Pb0.2Ti0.8Zr0.2O3 Composites

Materials consisting of piezomagnetic and piezoelectric phases viz. Ni_0.8Cu_0.2Fe₂O₄ and Ba_0.8Pb_0.2 Ti_0.8Zr_0.2O₃ have been prepared by standard ceramic method. The presence of two phases in the composites has been confirmed by XRD. Variation of the dielectric constant with frequency in the range 100–1 MHz has been studied at room temperature and the variation of dielectric constant with temperature at set frequencies (1 kHz, 10 kHz, 100 kHz and 1 MHz) has been studied. The dielectric relaxation was observed for the compositions with tetragonal structure whereas normal behaviour was observed for cubic structure. All the samples have shown linear magnetoelectric conversion in the presence of a static magnetic field. The dc resistivity (ρ_DC) was studied as a function of temperature in the range 300–773^∘K. The variation of resistivity with temperature shows metal/seconductor behaviour.