Almost Perfect Frustration in the Dimer Magnet Ba₂CoSi₂O₆Cl₂

We determined the crystal structure of Ba$_2$CoSi$_2$O$_6$Cl$_2$, which was synthesized in this work, and investigated its quantum magnetic properties using single crystals. This compound should be described as a two-dimensionally coupled spin-1/2 XY-like spin dimer system. Ba$_2$CoSi$_2$O$_6$Cl$_2$ exhibits a stepwise magnetization process with a plateau at half of the saturation magnetization, irrespective of the field direction, although all the Co$^{2+}$ sites are equivalent. This indicates that spin triplets are localized owing to the almost perfect frustration of interdimer exchange interactions. Thus, the spin states for the zero and 1/2 magnetization-plateau states are almost exactly given by the simple product of singlet dimers and the alternate product of singlet and triplet dimers, respectively.