Prediction and Experimental Evidence for Thermodynamically Stable Charged Orbital Domain Walls

On theoretical grounds, we show that orbital domain walls (ODWs), which are known to exist in the charge and orbital ordered layered manganite LaSr2Mn2O7, should be partially charged as a result of competition between orbital-induced strain and Coulomb repulsion. This unexpected result provides the necessary condition for the known thermodynamic stability of these ODWs, which are unlike the more typical domain walls that arise only from an external field. We offer experimental data consistent with this theoretical framework through a combined transport and x-ray-diffraction study. In particular, our transport data on this charge and orbital ordered manganite exhibit abrupt transformations to higher conductance at a threshold electric field. As transport phenomena closely resemble effects found for sliding charge-density waves (SCDWs) in pseudo-one-dimensional (1D) materials, a SCDW along such pseudo-1D ODWs provides a natural explanation of our data. Importantly, x-ray-diffraction data eliminate heating and melting of charge order as tenable alternative explanations of our data.