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Dielectric breakdown and avalanches at nonequilibrium metal-insulator transitions

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

A. Shekhawat
S. Papanikolaou
S. Zapperi
J.P. Sethna

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

Group (Lab)

James Sethna Group

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