title: Jahn-Teller phonon anomaly and dynamic phase fluctuations in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3.
abstract: Inelastic neutron scattering was used to study the temperature (T) dependence of the lattice excitations in La 0.7Ca 0.3MnO (3). An optical Jahn-Teller phonon exhibits continuous but anomalous damping with increasing temperature in the ferromagnetic-metallic phase and collapses above the Curie temperature T(C) (240 K). We attribute this anomaly to the growing dynamic phase segregation as T-->T(C), thus providing evidence of local fluctuations associated with the short-range polaron or charge/orbital ordering in the ferromagnetic-metallic state.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fernandez-Baca
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Plummer
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomioka
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokura