Resistive Switching as Nonequilibrium Phase Transition*

We investigate the quantum mechanical origin of resistive phase
transitions in solids driven by a constant electric field in the
vicinity of a metal-insulator transition [1]. We perform a nonequilibrium
mean-field analysis of a driven-dissipative symmetry-broken insulator,
which we solve analytically for the most part. We find that the
insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) and the metal-to-insulator
transition (MIT) proceed by two distinct electronic mechanisms:
Landau-Zener processes and the destabilization of the metallic state by
Joule heating, respectively. Our analytic approach enables us to
formulate testable predictions on the nonanalytic behavior of I -V
relation near the insulator-to-metal transition. Building on these
successes, we propose an effective Ginzburg-Landau theory which paves
the way to incorporating spatial fluctuations and to bringing the theory
closer to a realistic description of the resistive switchings in
correlated materials.

[1] J. E. Han, J. Li, C. Aron, and G. Kotliar, Phys. Rev. B 98, 035145 (2018).