Electric Pulse Induced Resistive Switching, Electronic Phase Separation, and Possible Superconductivity in a Mott insulator

Abstract

Metal-insulator transitions (MIT) belong to a class of fascinating physical phenomena, which includes superconductivity, and colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), that are associated with drastic modifications of electrical resistance. In transition metal compounds, MIT are often related to the presence of strong electronic correlations that drive the system into a Mott insulator state. In these systems the MIT is usually tuned by electron doping or by applying an external pressure. However, it was noted recently that a Mott insulator should also be sensitive to other external perturbations such as an electric field. We report here the first experimental evidence of a non-volatile electric-pulse-induced insulator-to-metal transition and possible superconductivity in the Mott insulator GaTa4Se8. Our Scanning Tunneling Microscopy experiments show that this unconventional response of the system to short electric pulses arises from a nanometer scale Electronic Phase Separation (EPS) generated in the bulk material.

Highlight in Advanced Functional Materials 18, 1-4 (2008) doi : 10.1002/adfm.200800558

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• Discovery of microscopic electronic inhomogeneity in the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x
• Nonpolar resistance switching of metal/binary-transition-metal oxides/metal sandwiches: homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of current distribution
• Atomic-scale images of charge ordering in a mixed-valence manganite
• Breakdown of a Mott insulator -- non-adiabatic tunneling mechanism
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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Universal electric-field-driven resistive transition in narrow-gap Mott insulators
• Electric-Field-Induced Resistive Switching in a Family of Mott Insulators : towards Non-Volatile Mott-RRAM Memories
• Resistive switching induced by electronic avalanche breakdown in GaTa${}_4$Se${}_{8-x}$Te${}_x$ narrow gap Mott Insulators
• First-Order Insulator-to-Metal Mott Transition in the Paramagnetic 3D System GaTa4Se8
• Featureless adaptive optimization accelerates functional electronic materials design
• Direct experimental observation of the molecular Jeff=3/2 ground state in the lacunar spinel GaTa4Se8
• Colossal magnetoresistance in a Mott insulator via magnetic field-driven insulator-metal transition
• Accessing the spectral function of in operando devices by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Relaxation of a Mott-neuron
• Evidence for current-induced phase coexistence in Ca${}_2$RuO${}_4$ and its influence on magnetic order
• Establishing magneto-structural relationships in the solid solutions of the skyrmion hosting family of materials: GaV${}_4$S${}_{8-y}$Se${}_y$
• Localised Wannier orbital basis for the Mott insulators GaV4S8 and GaTa4Se8
• Pattern Formation by Electric-field Quench in Mott Crystal
• Mott insulator breakdown through pattern formation
• Antipolar transitions in GaNb${}_4$Se${}_8$ and GaTa${}_4$Se${}_8$
• Lattice contraction induced by resistive switching in chromium-doped V2O3: a hallmark of Mott physics
• Spatial behavior in a Mott insulator near the voltage-driven resistive transition
• Spatio-temporal dynamics of voltage-induced resistance transition in the double-exchange model