Transport properties of a spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with an embedded spin-S impurity

Abstract

The finite temperature transport properties of a spin-1/2 anisotropic Heisenberg chain with an embedded spin-S impurity are studied. Using primarily numerical diagonalization techniques, we study the dependence of the dynamical spin and thermal conductivities on the lattice size, the magnitude of the impurity spin, the host-impurity coupling, the easy axis anisotropy, as well as the dependence on temperature. Particularly for the temperature dependence, we discuss the screening of the impurity by the chain eventually leading to the cutting or healing of the host chain. Numerical results are supported by analytical arguments obtained in the strong host-impurity coupling regime.

7 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Heat conduction in low-dimensional quantum magnets
• Thermal conductivity via magnetic excitations in spin-chain materials
• Thermal transport in one-dimensional spin gap systems
• Thermal transport of the XXZ chain in a magnetic field
• Finite temperature transport in disordered Heisenberg chains
• Drude weight in systems with open boundary conditions
• Incoherent transport induced by a single static impurity in a Heisenberg chain
• Projection operator approach to spin diffusion in the anisotropic Heisenberg chain at high temperatures
• Thermal transport in a spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain coupled to a (non) magnetic impurity