  Extrinsic multiferroic hybrid structures consisting of ferromagnetic and
ferroelectric layers elastically coupled to each other are promising due to
their robust magnetoelectric effects even at room temperature. For a
quantitative analysis of these magnetoelectric effects, a detailed knowledge of
the piezoelectric and magnetoelastic behavior of both constituents as well as
their mutual elastic coupling is mandatory. We here report on a theoretical and
experimental study of the magnetic behavior of BaTiO3-based extrinsic
multiferroic structures. An excellent agreement between molecular dynamics
simulations and the experiments was found for Fe50Co50/BaTiO3 and Ni/BaTiO3
hybrid structures. This demonstrates that the magnetic behavior of extrinsic
multiferroic hybrid structures can be determined by means of ab-initio
calculations, allowing for the design of novel multiferroic hybrids.
