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Magnetic ordering and spin network in the quantum spin ladder ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$

Sunil K. Karna ^1,*, Y. Zhao ^2,3, C. W. Wang ⁴, R. Sankar⁵, D. Temple¹, K. Matan ⁶, R. Piltz⁷, and M. Avdeev ^7,8

¹Department of Physics and Materials Science, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia 23504, USA
²NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
³Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
⁴Neutron Group, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 300092, Taiwan, Republic of China
⁵Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
⁶Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
⁷Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC NSW 2232, Australia
⁸University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

^*Contact author: skkarna@nsu.edu

Phys. Rev. B 114, 074409 – Published 7 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jpvl-jd4h

Abstract

We report a detailed structural and magnetic investigation of the spin-ladder compound ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$ using neutron and synchrotron diffraction techniques, along with magnetic susceptibility measurements. High-resolution neutron and synchrotron powder diffraction reveal a structural phase transition from monoclinic $C$ 2/ $m$ to triclinic $P \bar{1}$ symmetry below $\sim 275 K$ , driven by octahedral distortions that alter the Cu-O-Te-O-Cu super-superexchange pathways. At low temperatures, ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$ undergoes long-range antiferromagnetic ordering below the Néel temperature $T_{N} \approx 15 K$ , confirmed by both powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction. The magnetic ordering is characterized by a commensurate propagation vector $k = (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)$ and a reduced ordered moment of $\sim 0.48 μ_{B}$ per ${Cu}^{2 +}$ ion. These findings demonstrate that structural symmetry lowering modifies exchange anisotropy sufficiently to stabilize magnetic order in an otherwise low-dimensional system. These results establish ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$ as a model platform for exploring dimensional crossover, exchange anisotropy, and structure-driven quantum magnetism in spin-ladder materials.

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Magnetic ordering and spin network in the quantum spin ladder ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$

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Magnetic ordering and spin network in the quantum spin ladder Ba2CuTeO6

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Magnetic ordering and spin network in the quantum spin ladder ${Ba}_{2} {CuTeO}_{6}$