The authors have found that the required dc magnetic bias of magnetoelectric (ME) laminates can be significantly altered, by incorporating additional high-permeability mu-metal layers. Investigations have focused on Tb1-xDyxFe2-y/Pb(Zr1-xTix)O-3/mu-metal laminates. The authors' results show that laminated mu-metal layers oriented perpendicular to an ac magnetic field concentrate flux in the composite, whereas those parallel to it attenuate flux. This results in (i) a significant decrease in the required dc magnetic bias H-dc, and (ii) an effective enhancement in the ME voltage coefficients at low H-dc, by a factor of up to 7.6. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.