期刊
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
卷 117, 期 17, 页码 -出版社
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.176401
关键词
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资金
- European Union under FP7 ERC Starting Grant [240524]
- European Union [280555]
- ERC [692670]
- European Research Council [ERC-319286]
- European Research Council (ERC) [692670, 240524] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
Mott insulators are unsuccessful metals in which Coulomb repulsion prevents charge conduction despite a metal-like concentration of conduction electrons. The possibility to unlock the frozen carriers with an electric field offers tantalizing prospects of realizing new Mott-based microelectronic devices. Here we unveil how such unlocking happens in a simple model that shows the coexistence of a stable Mott insulator and a metastable metal. Considering a slab subject to a linear potential drop, we find, by means of the dynamical mean-field theory, that the electric breakdown of the Mott insulator occurs via a first-order insulator-to-metal transition characterized by an abrupt gap collapse in sharp contrast to the standard Zener breakdown. The switch on of conduction is due to the field-driven stabilization of the metastable metallic phase. Outside the region of insulator-metal coexistence, the electric breakdown occurs through a more conventional quantum tunneling across the Hubbard bands tilted by the field. Our findings rationalize recent experimental observations and may offer a guideline for future technological research.
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