1. Spatiotemporal characterization of the field-induced insulator-to-metal transition
- Author
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Ivan K. Schuller, Pavel Salev, L. Fratino, Coline Adda, Javier del Valle, Pavel N. Lapa, Paul Y. Wang, Rodolfo Rocco, Min-Han Lee, Nicolás Vargas, M. J. Rozenberg, and Yoav Kalcheim
- Subjects
Multidisciplinary ,Materials science ,Field (physics) ,Mott insulator ,Nucleation ,Insulator (electricity) ,02 engineering and technology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,01 natural sciences ,Characterization (materials science) ,Protein filament ,Neuromorphic engineering ,Chemical physics ,Electric field ,0103 physical sciences ,010306 general physics ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Many correlated systems feature an insulator-to-metal transition that can be triggered by an electric field. Although it is known that metallization takes place through filament formation, the details of how this process initiates and evolves remain elusive. We use in-operando optical reflectivity to capture the growth dynamics of the metallic phase with space and time resolution. We demonstrate that filament formation is triggered by nucleation at hotspots, with a subsequent expansion over several decades in time. By comparing three case studies (VO2, V3O5, and V2O3), we identify the resistivity change across the transition as the crucial parameter governing this process. Our results provide a spatiotemporal characterization of volatile resistive switching in Mott insulators, which is important for emerging technologies, such as optoelectronics and neuromorphic computing.
- Published
- 2020