Pressure dependent diffraction and spectroscopy of a dimerized antiferromagnet

Abstract

We present pressure dependent neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the dimerized antiferromagnet Ba$_3$Mn$_2$O$_8$. The room temperature diffraction measurements reveal a linear decrease in lattice constant as a function of applied pressure. No structural transitions are observed. The low-temperature neutron spectroscopy measurements indicate a small change in magnetic scattering intensity in the vicinity of the spin gap for pressures up to $P=0.6$~kbar.