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Recent experiments indicate that static stripe-like charge order is generic to the hole-doped copper oxide superconductors and competes with superconductivity. Here we show that a similar type of charge order is present in La5/3 Sr1/3 CoO4 , an insulating analogue of the copper oxide superconductors containing cobalt in place of copper. The stripe phase we have detected is accompanied by short-range, quasi-one-dimensional, antiferromagnetic order, and provides a natural explanation for the distinctive hour- glass shape of the magnetic spectrum previously observed in neutron scattering mea- surements of La2−xSrx CoO4 and many hole-doped copper oxide superconductors. The results establish a solid empirical basis for theories of the hourglass spectrum built on short-range, quasi-static, stripe correlations.

We use polarized inelastic neutron scattering to show that the neutron spin resonance below T-c in superconducting BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2 (T-c= 20 K) is purely magnetic in origin. Our analysis further reveals that the resonance peak near 7 meV only occurs for the planar response. This challenges the common perception that the spin resonance in the pnictides is an isotropic triplet excited state of the singlet Cooper pairs, as our results imply that only the S-001= +/- 1 components of the triplet are involved.

High-resolution neutron inelastic scattering experiments in applied magnetic fields have been performed on La1.895Sr0.105CuO4 (LSCO). In zero field, the temperature dependence of the low-energy peak intensity at the incommensurate momentum transfer Q(IC)=(0.5,0.5 +/-delta,0),(0.5 +/-delta,0.5,0) exhibits an anomaly at the superconducting T-c which broadens and shifts to lower temperature upon the application of a magnetic field along the c axis. A field-induced enhancement of the spectral weight is observed, but only at finite energy transfers and in an intermediate temperature range. These observations establish the opening of a strongly downward renormalized spin gap in the underdoped regime of LSCO. This behavior contrasts with the observed doping dependence of most electronic energy features.

Using polarized neutron scattering we establish that the magnetic order in La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4 is either (i) one dimensionally modulated and collinear, consistent with the stripe model or (ii) two dimensionally modulated with a novel noncollinear structure. The measurements rule out a number of alternative models characterized by 2D electronic order or 1D helical spin order. The low-energy spin excitations are found to be primarily transversely polarized relative to the stripe ordered state, consistent with conventional spin waves.

NaxCoO2, the parent compound of the recently synthesized superconductor NaxCoO2∶yH2O, exhibits bulk antiferromagnetic order below ∼20 K for 0.75≤x≤0.9. We have performed neutron scattering experiments in which we observed Bragg reflections corresponding to A-type antiferromagnetic order in a Na0.82CoO2 single crystal and characterized the corresponding spin-wave dispersions. The spin waves exhibit a strongly energy-dependent linewidth. The in-plane and out-of-plane exchange constants resulting from a fit to a nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model are similar in magnitude, which is unexpected in view of the layered crystal structure of NaxCoO2. Possible implications of these observations are discussed.