Heat transport by lattice and spin excitations in the spin-chain compounds SrCuO 2 and Sr 2 CuO 3

By A. Sologubenko, K. Gianno, H. Ott, A. Vietkine, A. Revcolevschi. 2001

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We present the results of measurements of the thermal conductivity of the quasi-one-dimensional $S=1/2$ spin-chain compound ${\mathrm{SrCuO}}_{2}$ in the temperature range between 0.4 and 300 K along the directions parallel and perpendicular to the chains. An anomalously enhanced thermal conductivity is observed along the chains above about 40 K. The analysis of the present data and a comparison with analogous recent results for ${\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{CuO}}_{3}$ and other similar materials demonstrates that this behavior is generic for cuprates with copper-oxygen chains and strong intrachain interactions. The observed anomalies are attributed to the one-dimensional energy transport by spin excitations (spinons), limited by the interaction between spin and lattice excitations. The energy transport along the spin chains has a nondiffusive character, in agreement with theoretical predictions for integrable models.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/65c19489990ecf003031f1c5221a0af3bba0c66e