Dielectric breakdown and avalanches at nonequilibrium metal-insulator transitions
Abstract
Motivated by recent experiments on the finite temperature Mott transition in VO 2 films, we propose a classical coarse-grained dielectric breakdown model where each degree of freedom represents a nanograin which transitions from insulator to metal with increasing temperature and voltage at random thresholds due to quenched disorder. We describe the properties of the resulting nonequilibrium metal-insulator transition and explain the universal characteristics of the resistance jump distribution. We predict that by tuning voltage, another critical point is approached, which separates a phase of boltlike avalanches from percolationlike ones. © 2011 American Physical Society.
Date Published
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
107
Issue
27
URL
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84855284887&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevLett.107.276401&partnerID=40&md5=8b92ea952a4d260a5283aa162ae31cda
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.276401
Research Area
Group (Lab)
James Sethna Group