Peculiar roles of spins in the thermal conductivity of pure and doped La2CuO4: Comparison with CuGeO3

Abstract In-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivities ( κ ab and κ c ) are measured on single crystals of pure, 1%-hole-doped, and 1%-Zn-doped La 2 CuO 4 . The roles of magnons and the spin stripes in the heat transport in these samples are discussed. Comparison with the heat transport in CuGeO 3 , which shows similar κ ( T ) behavior as that of La 2 CuO 4 , gives us a lesson of how the heat transport can probe the difference in the spin ground state.