MuSR investigation of static and dynamic properties of spin-5/2 frustrated triangular lattice compound Ba3MnTa2O9

A polycrystalline sample of the title compound Ba3MnTa2O9 was prepared by the conventional solid- state reaction method. Rietveld refinement of the HR-XRD data at T = 300 K confirms that the material is in a single phase with P-3m1 (164) space group. Curie-Weiss fitting of magnetic susceptibility data indicates strong antiferromagnetic coupling (CW temperature -12K) among the Mn2+ (S = 5/2) moments arranged in a frustrated edge-shared triangular lattice. No clear evidence of long- range magnetic ordering at least down to 500 mK in susceptibility and specific heat is observed. A broad hump is observed ~3 K in the specific heat. These measurements indicate that Ba3MnTa2O9 might host a spin-liquid state. It is essential to perform the muSR experiments to explore the putative spin-liquid behavior in the well-characterized polycrystalline sample of Ba3MnTa2O9.