Large magneto-thermal effect and the spin-phonon coupling in a parent insulating cuprate Pr_{1.3}La_{0.7}CuO_4
arXiv:cond-mat/0502603 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.72.104501
Abstract
The magnetic-field (H) dependence of the thermal conductivity κof Pr_{1.3}La_{0.7}CuO_4 is found to show a pronounced minimum for in-plane fields at low temperature, which is best attributed to the scattering of phonons by free spins that are seen by a Schottky-type specific heat and a Curie-Weiss susceptibility. Besides pointing to a strong spin-phonon coupling in cuprates, the present result demonstrates that the H-dependence of the phonon heat transport should not be naively neglected when discussing the κ(H) behavior of cuprates, since the Schottky anomaly is ubiquitously found in cuprates at any doping.
6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B