paper

Heat conduction in magnetic insulators via hybridization of acoustic phonons and spin-flip excitations

arXiv:2401.01407 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L022007

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study on the longitudinal magneto-thermal transport in a paramagnetic effective spin-1/2 magnetic insulator CsYbSe, by introducing a minimal model requiring only Zeeman splitting and magnetoelastic coupling. We use it to argue that hybridized excitations -- formed from acoustic phonons and localized spin-flip-excitations across the Zeeman gap of the crystal electric field ground doublet -- are responsible for a non-monotonic field dependence of longitudinal thermal conductivity. Beyond highlighting a starring role for phonons, our results raise the prospect of universal magneto-thermal transport phenomena in paramagnetic insulators that originate from simple features shared across many systems.

8 pages, 5 figures

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