Large magnetothermal conductivity of HoMnO_3 single crystals and its relation to the magnetic-field induced transitions of magnetic structure

We study the low-temperature heat transport of HoMnO_3 single crystals to probe the magnetic structures and their transitions induced by magnetic field. It is found that the low-T thermal conductivity (\kappa) shows very strong magnetic-field dependence, with the strongest suppression of nearly 90% and the biggest increase of 20 times of \kappa compared to its zero-field value. In particular, some ``dip"-like features show up in \kappa(H) isotherms for field along both the ab plane and the c axis. These behaviors are found to shed new light on the complex H-T phase diagram and the field-induced re-orientations of Mn^{3+} and Ho^{3+} spin structures. The results also demonstrate a significant spin-phonon coupling in this multiferroic compound.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

LDA Characterization of the Velocity Field around a Growing and Rising Bubble in Shear-thinning Fluid

Laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) has been employed to quantify the liquid velocity field around a single bubble in its generating and accelerating stage in carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) aqueous solution. The instantanoues velocities were treated by Reynolds time-averaged method, and mean velocities and its contours in both axial and radial directions were investigated. The results show that in vertical direction, the flow field characteristics of the liquids around the bubble are determined by bubble formation-rise mechanism, whereas in horizontal direction they are governed by the relative position with the bubble shear radius. The contours of axial and radial mean velocity in the test section take on the shapes of inverted trapezoid and butterfly forewing, respectively