Non-equilibrium gap-collapse near a first-order Mott transition

Abstract

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a simple model for V2O3 that consists of a quarter-filled Hubbard model for two orbitals that are split by a weak crystal field. Peculiarities of this model are: (1) a Mott insulator whose gap corresponds to transferring an electron from the occupied lower orbital to the empty upper one, rather than from the lower to the upper Hubbard sub-bands; (2) a Mott transition generically of first order even at zero temperature. We simulate by means of time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation the evolution within the insulating phase of an initial state endowed by a non-equilibrium population of electrons in the upper orbital and holes in the lower one. We find that the excess population may lead, above a threshold, to a gap-collapse and drive the insulator into the metastable metallic phase within the coexistence region around the Mott transition. This result foresees a non-thermal pathway to revert a Mott insulator into a metal. Even though this physical scenario is uncovered in a very specific toy-model, we argue it might apply to other Mott insulating materials that share similar features.

12 pages, 16 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Orbital selective Mott transition in multi-band systems: slave-spin representation and dynamical mean-field theory
• VO2: A Novel View from Band Theory
• Time-Dependent Mean Field Theory for Quench Dynamics in correlated electron systems
• Nonthermal antiferromagnetic order and nonequilibrium criticality in the Hubbard model
• Photo-induced states in a Mott insulator
• Quasiparticle evolution and pseudogap formation in V2O3: An infrared spectroscopy study
• Nonthermal symmetry broken states in the strongly interacting Hubbard model
• Effect of Crystal-Field Splitting and Inter-Band Hybridization on the Metal-Insulator Transitions of Strongly Correlated Systems
• Field-induced metal-insulator transition and switching phenomenon in correlated insulators
• Dynamically Generated Double Occupancy as a Probe of Cold Atom Systems
• Nonequilibrium transport and optical properties of model metal--Mott-insulator--metal heterostructures

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Non-thermal light-assisted resistance collapse in a V${}_2$O${}_3$-based Mott-insulator device
• Photo-induced Dirac cone flattening in BaNiS${}_2$