Electric field induced Mott-insulator to metal transition and memristive behaviour in epitaxial V${}_2$O${}_3$ thin film

Abstract

We report an isothermal electric field-induced first-order phase transition from Mott-insulator to the metallic state in the epitaxial thin film of V${}_2$O${}_3$ in the temperature regime below its Mott transition temperature $\approx$ 180 K. This isothermal electric field induced transition is accompanied by interesting electro-thermal history effects, which depend on the measurement paths followed in the electric field - temperature phase space. These interesting properties result in tuneable resistive switching and distinct memristive behavior in V${}_2$O${}_3$. A generalized framework of disorder-influenced first-order phase transition in combination with a resistor network model has been used to explain the observed experimental features. These findings promise possibilities for Mott insulators to be highly energy-efficient switches in novel technologies like neuromorphic computing.

arXiv comment8 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Optical Conductivity in Mott-Hubbard Systems
• Breakdown of a Mott insulator -- non-adiabatic tunneling mechanism
• Ground-State Decay Rate for the Zener Breakdown in Band and Mott Insulators
• A Microscopic View on the Mott transition in Chromium-doped V2O3
• Universal electric-field-driven resistive transition in narrow-gap Mott insulators
• Non-Thermal Resistive Switching in Mott Insulators
• Field-driven Mott gap collapse and resistive switch in correlated insulators
• Field-induced metal-insulator transition and switching phenomenon in correlated insulators
• Volume-wise destruction of the antiferromagnetic Mott insulating state through quantum tuning
• Nonequilibrium steady states of the electric-field-driven Mott insulator: Thermalization, emergent Wannier-Stark ladder, and dielectric breakdown