Pseudospin heat conductivity in the $J_\mathrm{eff} = 1/2$ antiferromagnet Sr$_2$IrO$_4$

We report the in-plane and out-of-plane heat conductivity of the antiferromagnetic spin-orbit induced Mott insulator Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ with $J_\mathrm{eff} = 1/2$. Our data reveal clear-cut evidence for magnetic heat transport within the IrO$_2$ planes which provides the unique possibility to analyze the thermal occupation and scattering of $J_\mathrm{eff} = 1/2$ pseudospin excitations. The analysis of the magnetic heat conductivity yields a low-temperature ($T \lesssim 75$ K) magnetic mean free path $l_\mathrm{mag} \sim 32$ nm, consistent with boundary scattering. Upon heating towards room temperature, the mean free path strongly decreases by one order of magnitude due to thermally activated scattering of the pseudospin excitations. The latter reveals that the coupling of these excitations to the lattice is radically different from that of $S = 1/2$-excitations in cuprate analogs.

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