2014/02/24 by F. B. Zhang, Q. J. Li, Z. Y. Zhao +6
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Algorithm #Computer science #Database #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Materials science #Multiferroics and related materials #Physics #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.89.094403
published as Phys. Rev. B 89, 094403 (2014) · 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B
arxiv created 2014/02/24 · openalex publication_date 2014/03/04 · arxiv updated 2014/03/06 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report a systematic study on the low-temperature thermal conductivity (\ensuremathκ) of R2Ti2O7 (R = Gd and Er) single crystals with different directions of magnetic field and heat current. It is found that the magnetic excitations mainly act as phonon scatterers rather than heat carriers, although these two materials have long-range magnetic orders at low temperatures. The low-T \ensuremathκ(H) isotherms of both compounds show rather complicated behaviors and have good correspondences with the magnetic transitions, where the \ensuremathκ(H) curves show drastic dip- or steplike changes. In comparison, the field dependencies of \ensuremathκ are more complicated in Gd2Ti2O7, due to the complexity of its low-T phase diagram and field-induced magnetic transitions. These results demonstrate the significant coupling between spins and phonons in these materials and the ability of heat-transport properties probing the magnetic transitions.