Impairing the memory of an electron-glass by IR excitation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how infrared light exposure affects the electron-glass memory in indium-oxide films, demonstrating that such excitation disrupts electron correlations and degrades the system's memory of previous states.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that IR excitation impairs electron-glass memory by randomizing electron correlations, a novel insight into the dynamics of disordered electronic systems.

Findings

IR excitation degrades the conductance cusp memory

Excitations that randomize electrons destroy correlations

Memory persistence is linked to electron correlations

Abstract

We study the influence of various excitations on the anomalous field effect observed in insulating indium-oxide films. In conductance G versus gate-voltage Vg measurements one observes a characteristic cusp around the Vg at which the system has equilibrated. In the absence of any disturbance this cusp may persist for a long time after a new gate voltage was imposed on the sample and hence reflects a memory of the previous equilibrium state. This memory is believed to be related to the correlations between electrons. Here we show that exciting the conduction electrons by exposing the sample to IR light degrades this memory. We argue that any excitation that randomizes the system destroys the correlations and therefore impairs the memory.