In a composite of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases, mechanical strain mediates magnetoelectric (ME) coupling between the magnetic and the electric subsystems. This review discusses recent advances in the physics of ME interactions in layered composites and nanostructures and potential device applications. The ME phenomena of importance are giant low-frequency interactions and coupling when the electric and/or the magnetic subsystems show resonance, including electromechanical resonance (EMR) in the piezoelectric phase, ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in the magnetic phase, and magnetoacoustic resonance at the overlap of EMR and FMR. Potential device applications for the composites are magnetic-field sensors, dual electric-field- and magnetic-field-tunable microwave and millimeter-wave devices, and miniature antennas.

The fabrication and characterization of an electric field-tunable yttrium iron garnet (YIG)-lead zirconate titanate (PZT) microwave resonator are discussed. The device is based on ferromagnetic resonance for YIG. The tunability is accomplished through magnetoelectric interactions. For an electric field $E=10\mathrm{kV}∕\mathrm{cm}$ across PZT, a frequency shift of $18–25\mathrm{MHz}$ that was an order of magnitude higher the frequency width of the absorption profile for the resonator was measured. Upon reversal of the direction of $E$ , the shift also reversed. The YIG-PZT bilayer structures could form the basis for rapid, electric field tunable, passive microwave resonators and filters.

A dual, electric and magnetic field tunable microwave phase shifter based on the propagation of hybrid spin-electromagnetic waves in a ferrite-ferroelectric bilayer is discussed. The bilayer consists of a single-crystal yttrium iron garnet film and a ceramic barium strontium titanate slab. The electrical tunability of the differential phase shift $\Delta \phi$ is achieved through the application of a voltage across barium strontium titanate. An insertion loss of $20\mathrm{dB}$ and a continuously variable $\Delta \phi$ as high as 650° in the frequency range of $4.5–8\mathrm{GHz}$ are measured.

The current surge of interest in multiferroic materials demands specialized measurement techniques to support multiferroics research. In this review article we detail well-established measurement techniques of the magneto-electric coupling coefficient in multiferroic materials, together with newly proposed ones. This work is intended to serve as a reference document for anyone willing to develop experimental measurement techniques of multiferroic materials.

The synthesis by hot pressing and wide-band $(10\mathrm{Hz}–1\mathrm{MHz})$ magnetoelectric (ME) characterization of bulk composites of nickel zinc ferrite ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{Zn}}_x{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_4$ (NZFO) $(x=0–0.5)$ and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are reported. Hot-pressed samples show an order of magnitude improvement in ME voltage coefficient compared to sintered samples. Frequency dependence of ME coefficients show a three order of magnitude enhancement at electromechanical resonance. The ME coupling is maximum for samples with equal volume of ferrite and PZT. The strongest ME interactions are measured for samples of NZFO $(x=0.2)$ and PZT.