title: Freezing of a stripe liquid.
abstract: The existence of a stripe-liquid phase in a layered nickelate, La(1.725)Sr(0.275)NiO(4), is demonstrated through neutron scattering measurements. We show that incommensurate magnetic fluctuations evolve continuously through the charge-ordering temperature, although an abrupt decrease in the effective damping energy is observed on cooling through the transition. The energy and momentum dependence of the magnetic scattering are parametrized with a damped-harmonic-oscillator model describing overdamped spin waves in the antiferromagnetic domains defined instantaneously by charge stripes.
authors.affiliation: NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
authors.forename: S-H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tranquada
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Buttrey
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Cheong