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Complex temperature-dependent thermal conductivity in the sawtooth chain magnet Fe2SiSe4

Kunya Yang1,2,*, Feihao Pan3, Liran Wang4, Chenglin Shang3, Ying Zhu2, Xiancai Hu2, Sanjiang He2, Xinrun Mi2,5, Long Zhang2 et al.

Aifeng Wang2, Yisheng Chai2, Frederic Hardy4, Christoph Meingast4, Peng Cheng3,†, and Mingquan He2,‡

  • *Contact author: kunyang@sanxiau.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: pcheng@ruc.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: mingquan.he@cqu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. B 113, 174442 – Published 29 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pctq-sbtz

Abstract

Geometrically frustrated magnets provide an ideal platform for exploring the interplay between lattice geometry and spin degrees of freedom. Here, we investigate the interactions between lattice and spin via thermal-transport measurements on the triangular sawtooth-lattice olivine magnet Fe2SiSe4, which exhibits successive magnetic transitions at T1=110K (antiferromagnetic) and T2=50K (ferrimagnetic). Although phonons dominate the thermal conductivity, its temperature dependence displays a pronounced double-peak structure arising from spin–phonon coupling. In the intermediate temperature range between T1 and T2, resonant scattering of phonons by magnetic excitations around 5 meV produces a broad maximum around 60 K. Below T2, the resonant spin–phonon scattering is strongly suppressed, leading to a rapid increase in thermal conductivity upon cooling and a pronounced low-temperature peak near 11 K, characteristic of heat transport governed by conventional phonon scattering mechanisms. Notably, this low-temperature peak is enhanced by a factor of ∼5 compared to the broad maximum at higher temperatures. These results demonstrate the strong sensitivity of thermal transport to spin–lattice interactions and highlight spin-phonon scattering as an effective mechanism for tailoring thermal conductivity in geometrically frustrated magnets.

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