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  • Letter
  • Open Access

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

Christopher A. Pocs1, Ian A. Leahy1, Jie Xing2, Eun Sang Choi3, Athena S. Sefat2, Michael Hermele1,4, and Minhyea Lee1

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L022007 – Published 7 April, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L022007

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study on the longitudinal magnetothermal transport in a paramagnetic effective spin-1/2 magnetic insulator CsYbSe2, 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 nonmonotonic field dependence of longitudinal thermal conductivity. Beyond highlighting a starring role for phonons, our results raise the prospect of universal magnetothermal transport phenomena in paramagnetic insulators that originate from simple features shared across many systems.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L022007– Published 7 April, 2025
  • Received 20 February 2024
  • Revised 29 October 2024
  • Accepted 22 January 2025
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