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We present an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of Li2CuO2 detecting the long sought quasi-1D magnetic excitations with a large dispersion along the CuO2-chains studied up to 25 meV. The total dispersion is governed by a surprisingly large ferromagnetic (FM) nearestneighbor exchange integral J1 = −228 K. An anomalous quartic dispersion near the zone center and a pronounced minimum near (0,0.11,0.5) r.l.u. (corresponding to a spiral excitation with a pitch angle about 41 •) point to the vicinity of a 3D FM-spiral critical point. The leading exchange couplings are obtained applying standard linear spin-wave theory. The 2 nd neighbor inter-chain interaction suppresses a spiral state and drives the FM in-chain ordering below the Néel temperature. The obtained exchange parameters are in agreement with the results for a realistic five-band extended Hubbard Cu 3d O 2p model and LSDA+U predictions.

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