Pressure driven phase transitions in the magnetically frustrated layered material, Ca2Mn3O8

Frustration occurs in materials where antiferromagnetic (spin up and spin down pairs) are incomparible with the underlying crystal morphology, for example where the connectivity between magnetic ions has a triangular motif. In these magnetic materials the magnetically ordered state is often unconventional. Calcium manganese oxide, Ca2Mn3O8, exhibits managnese oxide layers seperated by calcium ions. Within the layers a complex "bow-tie" like connectivity of the maganese leads to a "two up two down" spin arrangement below a temperature of approximately 50 K. We would like to conduct new experiments as a function of applied pressure and temperature to extend these initial studies. This will allow us to correlate applied pressure with chemical pressure to target new frustrated materials.