Magnetism in the pseudo-two-leg ladder compound CaCu2O3

Contrary to SrCu2O3, the pseudo-ladder two-leg compound CaCu2O3 does not show a significant spin-gap behavior as expected for typical two-leg ladder systems. Magnetization measurements on single crystals show CaCu2O3 to be a three-dimensional (3D) antiferromagnet (TN=27 K), showing relatively strong magnetic anisotropy and metamagnetic transitions. The 3D behavior is due to exchange between the ladders as deduced from electronic structure calculations within the local density approximation.