Measuring Magnetoelectric effects in matter with Tunnel diode oscillators.

Magnetoelectric materials present many novel applications for future technologies. These couplings in matter have been mostly studied by using magnetic fields to change electric properties. Recently, using electric fields to change magnetic properties has been of increased interest. We present a novel system for studying electrically driven changes of the magnetic properties of matter. This was done by using a tunnel diode to drive an LC circuit, with a sample placed inside the coil. An electric field can be applied to the sample perpendicular to the magnetic field. This setup can detect changes in the magnetic susceptibility of around 100 ppb. Our experimental setup can operate between 1.6 K and 100 K and can apply electric fields of around 100 kV/m. Results from this experiment on preliminary samples, demonstrate the capability of this experiment to search for magnetoelectric couplings.