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Magnetic and crystal electric field studies of a spin-orbit coupled hyperkagome compound Yb3Ga2Al3O12

R. Kolay1, S. Samanta1, Sangeeta1, M. P. Saravanan2, and R. Nath1,*

  • *Contact author: rameshchandra.nath@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 094401 – Published 9 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/phxt-sdhz

Abstract

We report the magnetic properties of a Yb3+-based hyperkagome compound Yb3Ga2Al3O12 characterized via different experimental techniques and complemented by crystal electric field (CEF) calculations. The magnetic measurements suggest the absence of magnetic long-range order down to 0.1 K, and the ground state is a Kramers doublet with an effective spin Jeff=1/2. A small Curie–Weiss temperature and magnetic scaling analysis suggest weak interaction among the magnetic Jeff=1/2 entities. The temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility and magnetic heat capacity could be described by a two-level Schottky function arising from the Zeeman splitting of the ground-state Kramers doublet. The CEF parameters are calculated using the point charge model. After diagonalizing the CEF Hamiltonian, we obtained the CEF energy eigenvalues and the corresponding wave functions. The simulated magnetization and heat capacity using these CEF parameters nicely reproduce our experimental data. The large separation between the ground state and the first excited state doublets in the calculated CEF scheme further supports a Jeff=1/2 state at lower temperatures.

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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 094401– Published 9 September, 2026
  • Received 26 February 2026
  • Accepted 21 August 2026
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