title: Random Field Driven Spatial Complexity at the Mott Transition in VO(2).
abstract: We report the first application of critical cluster techniques to the Mott metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide. We show that the geometric universal properties of the metallic and insulating puddles observed by scanning near-field infrared microscopy are consistent with the system passing near criticality of the random field Ising model as temperature is varied. The resulting large barriers to equilibrium may be the source of the unusually robust hysteresis phenomena associated with the metal-insulator transition in this system.
authors: Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Shuo
authors: S
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Phillabaum
authors: Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: E W
authors: EW
authors: Carlson
authors: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors: K A
authors: KA
authors: Dahmen
authors: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560064, India.
authors: N S
authors: NS
authors: Vidhyadhiraja
authors: Department of Physics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA.
authors: M M
authors: MM
authors: Qazilbash
authors: Department of Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors: D N
authors: DN
authors: Basov