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The α-Fe1.6Ga0.4O3 (Ga doped α-Fe2O3) sample has been stabilized in rhombohedral structure. The sample is a canted ferromagnet at 300 K and above. The spins structure starts flipping from in-plane direction to out of plane direction of the rhombohedral structure to exhibit an antiferromagnetic order below a typical temperature ∼ 215 K, known as Morin transition. The magnetic and dielectric properties of α-Fe1.6Ga0.4O3 system have been discussed in the temperature range 123 K to 350 K to examine the effect of magnetic spins flipping process on dielectric properties. The dielectric constant has shown an anomalous peak at ∼ 310 K, followed by a rapidly decrease of dielectric constant with temperature and becomes weakly temperature dependent below Morin transition. The temperature dependent dielectric constant is accompanied with the changes in electrical conductivity, dielectric loss and phase shift of the current with respect to applied ac voltage across the material. The magnetization and dielectric constant showed a linear relation over a wide range of temperature across the Morin transition. The dielectric constant at room temperature decreases under magnetic field, which indicates magneto-dielectric effect in the system. The signature of magneto-dielectric effect reveals a coupling between spins degrees of freedom (magnetic order) and charge degrees of freedom (electric polarization) in corundum structured non-traditional ferroelectric systems.

We have developed a new magnetoelectric material based on Ga doped α-Fe2O3 in rhombohedral phase. The material is a canted ferromagnet at room temperature and showing magneto-electric properties. The experimental results of electric field controlled magnetic state provided a direct evidence of room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in Ga doped α-Fe2O3 system. Interestingly, (un-doped) α-Fe2O3 system does not exhibit any electric field controlled magnetic exchange bias shift, but Ga doped α-Fe2O3 system has shown an extremely high electric field induced magnetic exchange bias shift up to the value of 1120 Oe (positive). On the other hand, in a first time, we report the electric field controlled magnetic state switching both in α-Fe2O3 and in Ga doped α-Fe2O3 systems. The switching of magnetic state is highly sensitive to ON and OFF modes, as well as to the change of polarity of applied electric voltage during in-field magnetic relaxation experiments. The switching of magnetic state to upper level for positive electric field and to down level for negative electric field indicates that electric and magnetic orders are coupled in the Ga doped hematite system. Such material is of increasing demand in today for multifunctional applications in next generation magnetic sensor, switching, non-volatile memory and spintronic devices. Keywords: Ga doped hematite, Rhombehedral structure, Exchange bias, Room temperature magneto-electrics, Electric field controlled magnetic state. Recently, some hetero-structured materials, either naturally exist (β-NaFeO2 [12]) or designed superlattices ((LuFeO3)9/(LuFe2O4)1 [13], Ti0.8Co0.2O2/Ca2Nb3O10/Ti0.8Co0.2O2 [14]) or theoretically predicted (R2NiMnO6/La2NiMnO6 [15]) exhibited electric field controlled

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