Hydrogels are biomimetic materials widely used in the area of biomedical engineering and biosensing. Ferrogels (FG) are magnetic composites capable of functioning as magnetic field sensitive transformers and field assisted drug deliverers. FG can be prepared by incorporating magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) into chemically crosslinked hydrogels. The properties of biomimetic ferrogels for multifunctional biosensor applications can be set up by synthesis. The properties of these biomimetic ferrogels can be thoroughly controlled in a physical experiment environment which is much less demanding than biotests. Two series of ferrogels (soft and dense) based on polyacrylamide (PAAm) with different chemical network densities were synthesized by free-radical polymerization in aqueous solution with N,N’-methylene-diacrylamide as a cross-linker and maghemite Fe2O3 MNPs fabricated by laser target evaporation as a filler. Their mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties were comparatively analyzed. We developed a giant magnetoimpedance (MI) sensor prototype with multilayered FeNi-based sensitive elements deposited onto glass or polymer substrates adapted for FG studies. The MI measurements in the initial state and in the presence of FG with different concentrations of MNPs at a frequency range of 1–300 MHz allowed a precise characterization of the stray fields of the MNPs present in the FG. We proposed an electrodynamic model to describe the MI in multilayered film with a FG layer based on the solution of linearized Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic fields coupled with the Landau-Lifshitz equation for the magnetization dynamics.
Magnetoelectric resonators have been studied for the detection of small amplitude and low frequency magnetic fields via the delta-E effect, mainly in fundamental bending or bulk resonance modes. Here, we present an experimental and theoretical investigation of magnetoelectric thin-film cantilevers that can be operated in bending modes (BMs) and torsion modes (TMs) as a magnetic field sensor. A magnetoelastic macrospin model is combined with an electromechanical finite element model and a general description of the delta-E effect of all stiffness tensor components Cij is derived. Simulations confirm quantitatively that the delta-E effect of the C66 component has the promising potential of significantly increasing the magnetic sensitivity and the maximum normalized frequency change ∆fr. However, the electrical excitation of TMs remains challenging and is found to significantly diminish the gain in sensitivity. Experiments reveal the dependency of the sensitivity and ∆fr of TMs on the mode number, which differs fundamentally from BMs and is well explained by our model. Because the contribution of C11 to the TMs increases with the mode number, the first-order TM yields the highest magnetic sensitivity. Overall, general insights are gained for the design of high-sensitivity delta-E effect sensors, as well as for frequency tunable devices based on the delta-E effect.
In recent years the delta-E effect has been used for detecting low frequency and low amplitude magnetic fields. Delta-E effect sensors utilize a forced mechanical resonator that is detuned by the delta-E effect upon application of a magnetic field. Typical frequencies of operation are from several kHz to the upper MHz regime. Different models have been used to describe the delta-E effect in those devices, but the frequency dependency has mainly been neglected. With this work we present a simple description of the delta-E effect as a function of the differential magnetic susceptibility χ of the magnetic material. We derive an analytical expression for χ that permits describing the frequency dependency of the delta-E effect of the Young’s modulus and the magnetic sensitivity. Calculations are compared with measurements on soft-magnetic (Fe90Co10)78Si12B10 thin films. We show that the frequency of operation can have a strong influence on the delta-E effect and the magnetic sensitivity of delta-E effect sensors. Overall, the delta-E effect reduces with increasing frequency and results in a stiffening of the Young’s modulus above the ferromagnetic resonance frequency. The details depend on the Gilbert damping. Whereas for large Gilbert damping the sensitivity continuously decreases with frequency, typical damping values result in an amplification close to the ferromagnetic resonance frequency.
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