Imaging of Electrothermal Filament Formation in a Mott Insulator

Lange, Matthias; Guénon, Stefan; Kalcheim, Yoav; Luibrand, Theodor; Vargas, Nicolas M.; Schwebius, Dennis; Kleiner, Reinhold; Schuller, Ivan K.; Koelle, Dieter

doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.16.054027

Imaging of Electrothermal Filament Formation in a Mott Insulator

Journal Article · Fri Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Physical Review Applied

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.16.054027· OSTI ID:1979637

Lange, Matthias ^[1]; ^[2]; Kalcheim, Yoav ^[3]; Luibrand, Theodor ^[2]; ^[4]; Schwebius, Dennis ^[2]; Kleiner, Reinhold ^[2]; ^[4]; ^[2]

Eberhard Karls Univ., Tuebingen (Germany). Center for Quantum Science (CQ); OSTI
Eberhard Karls Univ., Tuebingen (Germany). Center for Quantum Science (CQ)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Center for Advanced Nanoscience; Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa (Israel)
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Center for Advanced Nanoscience

Resistive switching—the current- and voltage-induced change of electrical resistance—is at the core of memristive devices, which play an essential role in the emerging field of neuromorphic computing. This study is about resistive switching in a Mott insulator, which undergoes a thermally driven metal-to-insulator transition. Two distinct switching mechanisms are reported for such a system: electric-field-driven resistive switching and electrothermal resistive switching. The latter results from an instability caused by Joule heating. Here, we present the visualization of the reversible resistive switching in a planar V₂O₃ thin-film device using high-resolution wide-field microscopy in combination with electric transport measurements. We investigate the interaction of the electrothermal instability with the strain-induced spontaneous phase separation in the V₂O₃ thin film at the Mott transition. The photomicrographs show the formation of a narrow metallic filament with a minimum width ≲500 nm. Although the filament formation and the overall shape of the current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) are typical of an electrothermal breakdown, we also observe atypical effects such as oblique filaments, filament splitting, and hysteretic IVCs with sawtoothlike jumps at high currents in the low-resistance regime. We are able to reproduce the experimental results in a numerical model based on a two-dimensional resistor network. This model demonstrates that resistive switching in this case is indeed electrothermal and that the intrinsic heterogeneity is responsible for the atypical effects. This heterogeneity is strongly influenced by strain, thereby establishing a link between switching dynamics and structural properties.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019273

OSTI ID:: 1979637

Journal Information:: Physical Review Applied, Journal Name: Physical Review Applied Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 16; ISSN 2331-7019

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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42 ENGINEERING
Domain walls
Mott insulators
Vanadium(III) oxide
electrical conductivity
electrothermal instabilities
filaments
first order phase transitions
memristive devices
metal-insulator transition
microphase separation
neuromorphic materials
optical microscopy
resistive switching
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Imaging of Electrothermal Filament Formation in a Mott Insulator

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