1 Multiferroic behavior of lead-free AlFeO 3 and Mn, Nb doped compositions G. M. Santos a , D. M. Silva a , V. F. Freitas a , G. S. Dias a , A. A. Coelho b , M. Pal c , I. A. Santos a , L. F. Cótica a,c* , R. Guo c , A. S. Bhalla c a Department of Physics – State University of Maringá, Maringá - PR. Brazil. b Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas-SP. Brazil. c Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio – 78249, USA The lead-free AlFeO 3 -based compounds are attractive multiferroic materials, as those present piezoelectricity and ferrimagnetism at low temperatures. In this work the synthesis and ferroic properties of AlFeO 3 -based ceramics were investigated. Stoichiometric proportions of the precursors - α-Fe 2 O 3 and α-Al 2 O 3 - were milled and sintered to obtain AlFeO 3 ceramics. Also, AlFeO 3 ceramics doped with 2at% of Nb 2 O 5 or MnO 2 were sintered in oxygen flow at 1700 K. The crystal structure of the samples was studied by X-ray diffraction. The diffractograms were refined by the Rietveld method. The results obtained from refinements showed an orthorhombic symmetry with space group Pna2 1 . Dielectric, ferroelectric and magnetic investigations suggested a magnetoelectric coupling between the electric and magnetic orderings at temperatures below ~ 160 K for AlFeO 3 , Al(Fe 0.98 Nb 0.02 )O 3 and Al(Fe 0.98 Mn 0.02 )O 3 , where the compositions show the ferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering. Keywords: Ferroelectrics, lead-free, multiferroic magnetoelectrics, magnetic properties. *Corresponding author: L. F. Cótica, Departamento de Física – Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, Maringá-PR, 87020-900, Brazil. E-mail: lfcotica@dfi.uem.br. Telephone: +55 (044) 3011-5904 Fax: +55 (044) 3263-4623.