A new highly efficient mode of thermal conduction

In agreement with theoretical predictions by QCN researchers, a new highly efficient mode of thermal conduction was discovered and presently investigated, namely heat transport by magnetic excitations in quasi one- dimensional (1D) insulating materials. The magnetic conduction is highly anisotropic, dwarfing the usual lattice contribution (by up to a factor of 50) and has mostly been studied in novel transition metal oxides with 1D spin structures such as the spin chain materials Sr2CuO3 and SrCuO2 and the “ladder” compound (La,Sr,Ca)14Cu24O41. The crucial point of this discovery is that around room temperature the magnetic heat conductivity κmag (of the order of 100 Wm−1K−1) is as efficient as metallic heat conduction.

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