Comment on "Low-temperature phonon thermal conductivity of single-crystalline Nd_{2}CuO_{4}: Effects of sample size and surface roughness" by Li et al.

Abstract

In this Comment, we show that the experimental data reported by Li {\it et al.} (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 77}, 134501 (2008)) do not support the phonon specular reflection at low temperatures for high-T_c cuprates, because the phonon mean free path \ell calculated from their thermal conductivity data is much smaller than the averaged sample width above \sim 100 mK for both Nd_{2}CuO_{4} and YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6.0} single crystals.

4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B