Magnetic heat conductivity in $\rm\bf CaCu_2O_3$: linear temperature dependence

Abstract

We present experimental results for the thermal conductivity $κ$ of the pseudo 2-leg ladder material $\rm CaCu_2O_3$. The strong buckling of the ladder rungs renders this material a good approximation to a $S=1/2$ Heisenberg-chain. Despite a strong suppression of the thermal conductivity of this material in all crystal directions due to inherent disorder, we find a dominant magnetic contribution $κ_\mathrm{mag}$ along the chain direction. $κ_\mathrm{mag}$ is \textit{linear} in temperature, resembling the low-temperature limit of the thermal Drude weight $D_\mathrm{th}$ of the $S=1/2$ Heisenberg chain. The comparison of $κ_\mathrm{mag}$ and $D_\mathrm{th}$ yields a magnetic mean free path of $l_\mathrm{mag}\approx 22 \pm 5$ Å, in good agreement with magnetic measurements.