title: Microscopic Theory of Resistive Switching in Ordered Insulators: Electronic versus Thermal Mechanisms.
abstract: We investigate the dramatic switch of resistance in ordered correlated insulators when they are driven out of equilibrium by a strong voltage bias. Microscopic calculations on a driven-dissipative lattice of interacting electrons explain the main experimental features of resistive switching (RS), such as the hysteretic I-V curves and the formation of hot conductive filaments. The energy-resolved electron distribution at the RS reveals the underlying nonequilibrium electronic mechanism, namely Landau-Zener tunneling, and also justifies a thermal description in which the hot-electron temperature, estimated from the first moment of the distribution, matches the equilibrium-phase transition temperature. We discuss the tangled relationship between filament growth and negative differential resistance and the influence of crystallographic structure and disorder in the RS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo , Buffalo, New York 14260, United States.
authors.forename: Jiajun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Universités , 75005 Paris, France.|Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, KU Leuven , 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Aron
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Rutgers University , New Jersey 08854, United States.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kotliar
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, State University of New York at Buffalo , Buffalo, New York 14260, United States.
authors.forename: Jong E
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5518-2986
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Han
keywords: Joule heating; Landau−Zener tunneling; Resistive switching; nonequilibrium Green’s function method; nonequilibrium-phase transition