Spin wave damping arising from phase coexistence below Tc in colossal magnetoresistive La0.7Ca0.3MnO3

Joel S. Helton, Susumu K. Jones, Daniel Parshall, Matthew B. Stone, Dmitry A. Shulyatev, Jeffrey W. Lynn

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    8 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    While the spin dynamics of La 0.7 Ca 0.3 MnO 3 in the ferromagnetic phase are known to be unconventional, previous measurements have yielded contradictory results regarding the damping of spin wave excitations. Neutron spectroscopy measurements on a sample with a transition temperature of Tc=257 K, higher than most single crystals, unambiguously reveal an anomalous increase in spin wave damping for excitations approaching the Brillouin zone boundary along the [100] direction that cannot be explained as an artifact due to a noninteracting phonon branch. Spin waves throughout the (HK0) plane display a common trend where the spin wave damping is dependent upon the excitation energy, increasing for energies above roughly 15 meV and reaching a full width at half maximum of at least 20 meV. The results are consistent with a model of intrinsic spatial inhomogeneity with phase separated regions approximately 18 Å in size persisting over a large range of temperatures below Tc.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number104417
    JournalPhysical Review B
    Volume96
    Issue number10
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Sep 13 2017

    Funding

    We thank J. Fernandez-Baca for helpful discussions. J.S.H acknowledges partial support from the Office of Naval Research Mathematics, Computer and Information Sciences Division through the Naval Academy Research Council. D.A.S acknowledges the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Grant No. 14.Y26.31.0005). A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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