Abstract
We present an example of giant magnetoelectric effect in a conventional multiferroic HoMnO3, where polarization is very large (similar to 56 mC/m(2)) and the ferroelectric transition temperature is higher than the magnetic ordering temperature by an order. We attribute the characteristic of the giant magnetoelectric effect to the ferroelectricity induced entirely by the off-center displacement of rare-earth ions with large magnetic moments. This finding suggests an avenue to design multiferroics with large polarization and higher ferroelectric transition temperature as well as large magnetoelectric effects.