Singlet Ground State and Magnetization Plateaus in Ba₃Mn₂O₈

Magnetic susceptibility and the magnetization process have been measured in \green polycrystal. In this compound, the magnetic manganese ion exists as Mn$^{5+}$ in a tetrahedral environment, and thus the magnetic interaction can be described by an S=1 Heisenberg model. The ground state was found to be a spin singlet with an excitation gap $\Delta/k_{\rm B}=11.2$ K. Magnetization plateaus were observed at zero and at half of the saturation magnetization. These results indicate that the present system can be represented by a coupled antiferromagnetic dimer model.