This article reviews low-temperature heat transport studies of spin-gapped quantum magnets in the last few decades. Quantum magnets with small spins and low dimensionality exhibit a variety of novel phenomena. Among t...This article reviews low-temperature heat transport studies of spin-gapped quantum magnets in the last few decades. Quantum magnets with small spins and low dimensionality exhibit a variety of novel phenomena. Among them, some systems are characteristic of having quantum-mechanism spin gap in their magnetic excitation spectra, including spin-Peierls systems, S=1Haldane chains, S= 1/2 spin ladders, and spin dimmers. In some particular spin-gapped systems, the XY-type antiferromagnetic state induced by magnetic field that closes the spin gap can be described as a magnon Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC). Heat transport is effective in probing the magnetic excitations and magnetic phase transitions, and has been extensively studied for the spin-gapped systems. A large and ballistic spin thermal conductivity was observed in the two-leg Heisenberg S=1/2 ladder compounds. The characteristic of magnetic thermal transport of the Haldane chain systems is quite controversial on both the theoretical and experimental results. For the spin-Peierls system, the spin excitations can also act as heat carriers. In spin-dimer compounds, the magnetic excitations mainly play a role of scattering phonons. The magnetic excitations in the magnon BEC systems displayed dual roles, carrying heat or scattering phonons, in different materials.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11374277,11574286,11404316,U1532147)the National Basic Research Program of China(Grant Nos.2015CB921201,2016YFA0300103)the Opening Project of Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center(Grant No.2015KF21)
文摘This article reviews low-temperature heat transport studies of spin-gapped quantum magnets in the last few decades. Quantum magnets with small spins and low dimensionality exhibit a variety of novel phenomena. Among them, some systems are characteristic of having quantum-mechanism spin gap in their magnetic excitation spectra, including spin-Peierls systems, S=1Haldane chains, S= 1/2 spin ladders, and spin dimmers. In some particular spin-gapped systems, the XY-type antiferromagnetic state induced by magnetic field that closes the spin gap can be described as a magnon Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC). Heat transport is effective in probing the magnetic excitations and magnetic phase transitions, and has been extensively studied for the spin-gapped systems. A large and ballistic spin thermal conductivity was observed in the two-leg Heisenberg S=1/2 ladder compounds. The characteristic of magnetic thermal transport of the Haldane chain systems is quite controversial on both the theoretical and experimental results. For the spin-Peierls system, the spin excitations can also act as heat carriers. In spin-dimer compounds, the magnetic excitations mainly play a role of scattering phonons. The magnetic excitations in the magnon BEC systems displayed dual roles, carrying heat or scattering phonons, in different materials.
