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While the spin dynamics of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low energy inelastic neutron scattering on single crystals of the kagome spin-liquid compound ZnCu3(OD)6Cl2 (herbertsmithite) reveals antiferromagnetic correlations between impurity spins for energy transfers ℏω<0.8meV (~J/20). The momentum dependence differs significantly from higher energy scattering which arises from the intrinsic kagome spins. The low energy fluctuations are characterized by diffuse scattering near wave vectors (100) and (003/2), which is consistent with antiferromagnetic correlations between pairs of nearest-neighbor Cu impurities on adjacent triangular (Zn) interlayers. The corresponding impurity lattice resembles a simple cubic lattice in the dilute limit below the percolation threshold. Such an impurity model can describe prior neutron, NMR, and specific heat data. The low energy neutron data are consistent with the presence of a small spin gap (Δ~0.7meV) in the kagome layers, similar to that recently observed by NMR. The ability to distinguish the scattering due to Cu impurities from that of the planar kagome Cu spins provides an important avenue for probing intrinsic spin-liquid physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]