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

Abstract

We present experimental results for the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ 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 $\kappa_\mathrm{mag}$ along the chain direction. $\kappa_\mathrm{mag}$ 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 $\kappa_\mathrm{mag}$ and $D_\mathrm{th}$ yields a magnetic mean free path of $l_\mathrm{mag}\approx 22 \pm 5$ \AA, in good agreement with magnetic measurements.