Voltage-Driven Breakdown of Electronic Order

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Oliveira, Miguel M., Ribeiro, Pedro, Kirchner, Stefan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Oliveira, Miguel M.
Ribeiro, Pedro
Kirchner, Stefan
author_facet Oliveira, Miguel M.
Ribeiro, Pedro
Kirchner, Stefan
contents The non-thermal breakdown of a Mott insulator has been a topic of great theoretical and experimental interest with technological relevance. Recent experiments have found a sharp non-equilibrium insulator-to-metal transition that is accompanied by hysteresis, a negative differential conductance and lattice deformations. However, a thorough understanding of the underlying breakdown mechanism is still lacking. Here, we examine a scenario in which the breakdown is induced by chemical pressure in a paradigmatic model of interacting spinless fermions on a chain coupled to metallic reservoirs (leads). For the Markovian regime, at infinite bias, we qualitatively reproduce several established results. Beyond infinite bias, we find a rich phase diagram where the nature of the breakdown depends on the coupling strength as the bias voltage is tuned up, yielding different current-carrying non-equilibrium phases. For weak to intermediate coupling, we find a conducting CDW phase with a bias-dependent ordering wave vector. At large interaction strength, the breakdown connects the system to a charge-separated insulating phase. We find instances of hysteretic behavior, sharp current onset and negative differential conductance. Our results can help to shed light on recent experimental findings that address current-induced Mott breakdown.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_09512
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Voltage-Driven Breakdown of Electronic Order
Oliveira, Miguel M.
Ribeiro, Pedro
Kirchner, Stefan
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
The non-thermal breakdown of a Mott insulator has been a topic of great theoretical and experimental interest with technological relevance. Recent experiments have found a sharp non-equilibrium insulator-to-metal transition that is accompanied by hysteresis, a negative differential conductance and lattice deformations. However, a thorough understanding of the underlying breakdown mechanism is still lacking. Here, we examine a scenario in which the breakdown is induced by chemical pressure in a paradigmatic model of interacting spinless fermions on a chain coupled to metallic reservoirs (leads). For the Markovian regime, at infinite bias, we qualitatively reproduce several established results. Beyond infinite bias, we find a rich phase diagram where the nature of the breakdown depends on the coupling strength as the bias voltage is tuned up, yielding different current-carrying non-equilibrium phases. For weak to intermediate coupling, we find a conducting CDW phase with a bias-dependent ordering wave vector. At large interaction strength, the breakdown connects the system to a charge-separated insulating phase. We find instances of hysteretic behavior, sharp current onset and negative differential conductance. Our results can help to shed light on recent experimental findings that address current-induced Mott breakdown.
title Voltage-Driven Breakdown of Electronic Order
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.09512