  Growth of BaMn2As2 crystals using both MnAs and Sn fluxes is reported. Room
temperature crystallography, anisotropic isothermal magnetization M versus
field H and magnetic susceptibility chi versus temperature T, electrical
resistivity in the ab plane rho(T), and heat capacity C(T) measurements on the
crystals were carried out. The tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure of BaMn2As2
is confirmed. After correction for traces of ferromagnetic MnAs impurity phase
using M(H) isotherms, the inferred intrinsic chi(T) data of the crystals are
anisotropic with chi_{ab}/chi_{c} \approx 7.5 at T = 2 K. The temperature
dependences of the anisotropic chi data suggest that BaMn2As2 is a collinear
antiferromagnet at room temperature with the easy axis along the c axis, and
with an extrapolated Neel temperature T_N \sim 500 K. The rho(T) decreases with
decreasing T below 310 K but then increases below \sim 50 K, suggesting that
BaMn2As2 is a small band-gap semiconductor with an activation energy of order
0.03 eV. The C(T) data from 2 to 5 K are consistent with this insulating ground
state, exhibiting a low temperature Sommerfeld coefficient gamma = 0.0(4)
mJ/mol K^2. The Debye temperature is determined from these data to be theta_D =
246(4) K. BaMn2As2 is a potential parent compound for ThCr2Si2-type
superconductors.
