We have studied the influence of laser illumination on the magnetization in multiferroic YbFe 2 O 4 single crystals. A photoinduced magnetization change has been confirmed in both ab plane and c axis direction. The temperature dependence of the photoinduced magnetization reduction excludes laser heating as the cause. In terms of the breakdown of charge order driven by laser illumination, the photoinduced magnetization change provides a strong evidence for the spin-charge coupling in YbFe 2 O 4 . This photomagnetic effect based on charge-order-induced multiferroicity could be used for non-thermal optical control of magnetization.Recently there has been growing interest in the field of multiferroics and magnetoelectric effects due to its great potential for applications as well as the significance for fundamental physics. 1,2 The mixed-valence compounds RFe 2 O 4 (R= Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu and Y) represent a peculiar class of multiferroic materials in which the multiferroicity is induced by charge order (CO). 3 The system involves a double layer structure with a triangular iron lattice. The coulombic interactions between Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ ions compete with the frustrated nature of the triangular lattice, which leads to a peculiar ordered arrangement of charges. For instance, a three-dimensional (3D) CO occurs below 330 K in LuFe 2 O 4 , 4,5 which results in a net electrical polarization. This type of ferroelectricity associated with CO is termed as "electronic ferroelectricity", 6 in contrast to conventional ferroelectricity involving displacement of cation and anion pairs. Meanwhile, the strong magnetic interactions between Fe moments develop as a ferrimagnetic ordering below a temperature around 240 K. 7 Therefore, the coexistence of electronic ferroelectricity and ferrimagnetism makes RFe 2 O 4 a new class of multiferroic materials.Although the CO induced multiferroicity in RFe 2 O 4 has been well identified by many experiments, the coupling between electronic and magnetic degree of freedom in the system has not been directly observed. Previous studies have shown some signs of a magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in LuFe 2 O 4 , such as the sharp change of electrical polarization at the ferrimagnetic transition temperature T N , 6 and the X-ray scattering study. 8 Nevertheless, the ME coupling in multiferroic RFe 2 O 4 requires more convincing evidences.It has been well known that the CO in many systems can be manipulated by external stimulus. 9,10 Our recent work suggests that the CO in RFe 2 O 4 is very sensitive to external electric fields and the breakdown of CO by applied electric fields leads to an insulator to metal transition 11 1