Electric-field-driven resistive switching in dissipative Hubbard model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strongly correlated electrons respond to electric fields, revealing limits of linear response, Joule heating effects, and electric-field-induced resistive switching to a Mott insulator state.

Contribution

It provides a non-perturbative analysis of non-equilibrium steady states in a dissipative Hubbard model under electric fields, highlighting resistive switching and hysteresis phenomena.

Findings

Linear response limited by Joule heating

Electric fields induce resistive switching to Mott insulator

Hysteretic I-V curves indicate inhomogeneous metal-insulator states

Abstract

We study how strongly correlated electrons on a dissipative lattice evolve from equilibrium when driven by a constant electric field, focusing on the extent of the linear regime and hysteretic non-linear effects at higher fields. We access the non-equilibrium steady states, non-perturbatively in both the field and the electronic interactions, by means of a non-equilibrium dynamical mean-field theory in the Coulomb gauge. The linear response regime is limited by Joule heating effects and breaks down at fields orders of magnitude smaller than the quasi-particle energy scale. For large electronic interactions, strong but experimentally accessible electric fields can induce a resistive switching by driving the strongly correlated metal into a Mott insulator. Hysteretic $I$-$V$ curves suggest that the non-equilibrium current is carried through a spatially inhomogeneous metal-insulator mixed state.