Erbium-Excess Gallium Garnets

A series of garnets of formula Er_3+xGa_5-xO₁₂ are described, for which we report the crystal structures for both polycrystalline and single-crystal samples. The x limit in the garnet phase is between 0.5 and 0.6 under our conditions, with the Er fully occupying the dodecahedral (24c) garnet site plus some of the octahedral site (16a) in place of the Ga normally present. Long-range antiferromagnetic order with spin-ice-like frustration is suggested by the transition temperature (T_N ≈ 0.8 K) being lower than the Curie-Weiss theta. The magnetic ordering temperature does not depend on the Er excess, but there is increasing residual entropy as the Er excess is increased, highlighting the potential for unusual magnetic behavior in this system. The field-dependent magnetic entropy trend is consistent with the reported behavior for frustrated triangular magnetic systems: an increasing transition temperature with a broader hump as the applied field increases [ Xing, J. ; Phys. Rev. Mater. 2019, 3(11), 114413; Filippi, J. ; Solid State Commun. 1977, 23(9), 613-616 ; Bloxsom, J. A. Thermal and Magnetic Studies of Spin Ice Compounds. University College London, 2016].