Magnetic microphase inhomogeneity as a thermodynamic precursor of ground-state phase separation in weakly coupled spin-3/2 chains
γ-CoV2O6 is a quasi-one-dimensional spin-3/2 magnet that possesses two distinct magnetic orders at low temperatures with propagation vectors k1=(½,0,0) and k2=(¼ + δh, δk, - ¼ + δl), respectively. Here we use muon spin relaxation and rotation to reveal the thermodynamics of the magnetic phase separation in this compound. In the paramagnetic (PM) region, short-range correlated spin clusters emerge