Pressure-induced valence crossover and novel metamagnetic behavior near the antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition of YbNi_{3}Ga_{9}

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Feb 27;114(8):086401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.086401. Epub 2015 Feb 24.

Abstract

We report electrical resistivity, ac magnetic susceptibility, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements of intermediate valence YbNi_{3}Ga_{9} under pressure and magnetic field. We have revealed a characteristic pressure-induced Yb valence crossover within the temperature-pressure phase diagram, and a first-order metamagnetic transition is found below P_{c}∼9 GPa where the system undergoes a pressure-induced antiferromagnetic transition. As a possible origin of the metamagnetic behavior, a critical valence fluctuation emerging near the critical point of the first-order valence transition is discussed on the basis of the temperature-field-pressure phase diagram.