  We study the magnetism of the hole doped CuO2 spin chains in Sr14Cu24O41 by
measuring the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and the static magnetization M in
applied magnetic fields up to 14 T. In this compound, the dimerized ground
state and the charge order in the chains are well established. Our experimental
data suggest that at low temperatures the Curie-like increase of M as well as
the occurrence of the related ESR signal are due to a small amount of
paramagnetic centers which are not extrinsic defects but rather unpaired Cu
spins in the chain. These observations qualitatively confirm recent ab initio
calculations of the ground state properties of the CuO2 chains in Sr14Cu24O41.
Our complementary quantum statistical simulations yield that the temperature
and field dependence of the magnetization can be well described by an effective
Heisenberg model in which the ground state configuration is composed of spin
dimers, trimers, and monomers.
