Electric-pulse-driven electronic phase separation, insulator-metal transition, and possible superconductivity in a Mott insulator

Experimental evidence of a nonvolatile electric-pulse-induced insulator-tometal transition and possible superconductivity in the Mott insulator GaTa4Se8 is reported. Scanning tunneling microscopy experiments show that this unconventional response of the system to short electric pulses arises from a nanometer-scale electronic phase separation generated in the bulk material (see figure).