Demonstration of magnetoelectric read head of multiferroic heterostructures

Bilayered heterostructures of ferrites and BaTiO3, epitaxially grown on SrTiO3 single crystal substrate via pulsed laser deposition, showed an obvious magnetoelectric effect. Employing such simple bilayered thin films as a prototype magnetoelectric read head was demonstrated. The media field from the bits in a magnetic recording medium was modeled by an ac magnetic field. The output voltage waveforms of the bilayered thin films well followed the wave functions of the ac magnetic excitation signal, which illustrates utility of the bilayered heterostructures as magnetoelectric read head. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.