Radiant Technologies > Tester Accessories > Magnetoelectric Testing

Magnetoelectric Response Bundle For Bulk Ceramics and Thin Films

Radiant's Magnetoelectric Bundle offers researchers a complete platform to efficiently characterize magnetic coupling of Multiferroic or Magneto-piezoelectric devices. Radiant's Magneto-electric Bundle is offered in a Bulk Ceramic and Thin Film Testing Package.

Image of a magneto electric test setup using a Radiant Technologies Precision Current Source CS 2.5 and a Radiant Technologies Precision Magneto Electric Thin Film Test Fixture
Image of a magneto electric test setup using a Radiant Technologies Precision Current Source CS 2.5 (bottom) and a Radiant Technologies Precision Magneto Electric Thin Film Test Fixture (top)

The accessory adds four items to the Radiant tester:

  1. ME Shield Box:  The sample holder that shields the sample electrically while also mounting magnetic field sensors directly at the sample location.  This is the only way to be sure of the magnetic field at the sample during a test. Also, most modern ME samples generated only a few picocoulombs of charge which cannot be seen in a laboratory without electrical shielding due to 50Hz or 60Hz noise.
  2. Lakeshore MH-6 Helmholtz coil for applying small magnetic fields up to 50 Oersted.   - You do not have to purchase this item if you already have your own magnetic coils or prefer those of another manufacturer.
  3. Radiant 2.5 Ampere Current Source for driving the magnetic coil.  - Again, you do not need this item should you already have a voltage controlled current amplifier.
  4. A Lakeshore Hall Effect magnetic field sensor - used for calibrating the test fixture, especially if you provide your own coils and current amplifiers.

Radiant does not supply DC magnetic field coils but the MER Task in Vision will control external DC coils to set a DC magnetic field across the sample.

The Magneto-electric Hardware/Software Bundle Includes:

  • Radiant Precision Current Source CS-2.5 (includes 2 voltage outputs)
  • current sensor
  • 2.5-amp current source
  • Helmholtz Coil
    Test Fixture for Bulk Ceramics or Thin Films
  • Magneto-electric Software Task

The Magnetoelectric Response (MER) Task in Vision executes a single or double sinusoidal or triangular magnetic field waveform across the sample inside the Shield Box inside the Helmholtz coil while measuring the charge generated by the sample in response to the changing magnetic field. It is the exact parallel to the classic polarization hysteresis loop measurement except for the replacement of the voltage waveform with a magnetic field waveform. The DRIVE output of the tester is connected to the voltage input of a current source which drives the magnetic coil. In addition to the AC magnetic coil, Vision will set DC magnetic fields in a separate, much larger coil that can be placed across the sample.

There are a wide variety of measurements besides the magnetoelectric response that can be executed with the Magnetoelectric Bundle.

  • 1 Polarization Hysteresis vs Magnetic Field
  • 2 Remanent Polarization vs Magnetic Field
  • 3 PUND vs Magnetic Field
  • 4 Conduction vs Magnetic Field (the so-called magneto-resistive memory effect)
  • 5 IV vs Magnetic Field
  • 6 Small Signal Capacitance vs Magnetic Field
  • 7 Voltage-to-Magnetic Field Task - Sets a voltage on the input of an external current amplifier to set a DC magnetic field.
  • 8 A Calibration Task
  • 9 The MER Task - measures magnetoelectric response of a capacitor
  • 10 The Single Point C/V MR Task - measures the sample small signal capacitance after setting a specified DC magnetic field value.

Radiant's Magneto-electric Bundle hooks up to existing coils on the market such as GMW and other manufacturers.

Figure 5 below shows the response of the reference sample measured with the Magneto-electric Response Task. The result in Figure 5 was within 1% of the theoretical value given the strength of the magnet and the piezoelectric coefficients of the PNZT capacitor.

Figure 5: The MR test configuration with DC field coil and sample voltage bias
Figure 5: The MR test configuration with DC field coil and sample voltage bias