Thermal conductivity in the doped two-leg ladder antiferromagnet Sr14-xCaxCu24O41

Within the t-J model, the heat transport of the doped two-leg ladder material Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 is studied in the doped regime where superconductivity appears under pressure in low temperatures. The energy dependence of the thermal conductivity kappa(c)(omega) shows a low-energy peak, while the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity kappa(c)(T) is characterized by a broad band. In particular, kappa(c)(T) increases monotonously with increasing temperature at low temperatures T < 0.05J, and is weakly temperature-dependent in the temperature range 0.05J < T < 0.1 J, then decreases for temperatures T > 0.1J, in qualitative agreement with experiments. Our result also shows that although both dressed holons and spinons are responsible for the thermal conductivity, the contribution from the dressed spinons dominates the heat transport of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.