We study the low-temperature heat transport of Nd_3Ga_5SiO_{14}, which is a spin-liquid candidate, to probe the nature of ground state and the effect of magnetic field on the magnetic properties. The thermal conductivity (\kappa) shows a purely phononic transport in zero field. The external magnetic field along the c axis induces a dip-like behavior of \kappa(H), which can be attributed to a simple paramagnetic scattering on phonons. However, the magnetic field along the ab plane induces another step-like decrease of \kappa. This kind of \kappa(H) behavior is discussed to be related to a field-induced partial order, which yields low-energy magnetic excitations that significantly scatter phonons. These results point to a paramagnetic ground state that partial magnetic order can be induced by magnetic field along the ab plane, which is also signified by the low-T specific heat data.
@article{arxiv.1205.3961,
title = {Paramagnetic ground state with field-induced partial order in Nd_3Ga_5SiO_{14} probed by low-temperature heat transport},
author = {Q. J. Li and Z. Y. Zhao and H. D. Zhou and W. P. Ke and X. M. Wang and C. Fan and X. G. Liu and L. M. Chen and X. Zhao and X. F. Sun},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.3961},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B