Electrostriction and the magnetoelectric effect in YIG

Measurements of the electrostriction of three single crystals of YIG have been made in order to investigate a hypothesis that a combination of electrostriction and inverse magnetostriction might contribute to the magnetoelectric effect in YIG. The electrostriction was found to be large, the values being such that the entire observed magnetoelectric effect in YIG can be accounted for in terms of the proposed electrostriction-inverse-magnetostriction mechanism.