Effect of electric field on one-dimensional insulators: a density matrix renormalization group study

Abstract

We perform density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations extensively on one dimensional Mott and Peierls chains with explicit inclusion of the static bias to study the insulator-metal transition in those systems. We find that the electric field induces a number of insulator-metal transitions for finite size systems and at the thermodynamic limit, the insulating system breaks down into a completely conducting state at a critical value of bias which depends strongly on the insulating parameters. Our results indicate that the breakdown, in both the Peierls and Mott insulators, at thermodynamic limit, does not follow the Landau-Zener mechanism. Calculations on various size systems indicate that an increase in the system size decreases the threshold bias as well as the charge gap at that bias, making the insulator-metal transition sharper in both cases.

Electric‐Field‐Induced Resistive Switching in a Family of Mott Insulators: Towards a New Class of RRAM Memories

“…We found that electric fields as low as 2 kV/cm induce an electronic phase change in these compounds from a Mott insulating state to a metallic-like state. Our results suggest that this transition belongs to a new class of resistive switching and might be explained by recent theoretical works predicting that an insulator to metal transition can be achieved by a simple electric field in a Mott Insulator [3,4,5] . This new type of resistive switching has potential to build up a new class of Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) with fast writing/erasing times (50 ns to 10 µs) and resistance ratios R/R of the order of 25% at room temperature.…”

“…Conversely, RRAM based on an Electronic Phase Change are still experimentally unexplored, while they could offer more reliability and higher speed [6,7] . In that respect, the recent theoretical prediction that a simple electric field could drive an insulator to metal transition in a Mott Insulator [3,4,5] appears as particularly appealing. It paves the way for a new type of RRAM based on an Electronic Phase Change, namely a Mott insulator-metal transition with a very fast potential switching time [9] .…”

“…This is again much better than the writing/erasing voltages of about 12 V used in Flash memories [1] . [3,4,5] and induce an insulator to metal transition. The …”

Comparative study of electron conduction in azulene and naphthalene

“…In most of the experiments, the nanoscale material is an organic molecule or a π-conjugated polymer. Many theories too have been developed from empirical to semi-empirical and ab initio level to describe the electrical response functions of the nanomaterials Pati 2004, 2005;Sengupta et al 2006;Dutta et al 2007;Dutta and Pati 2008a, b).…”

Role of correlated hopping in mixed valence phenomena

“…In [9], authors performed density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations to study electric field-induced insulator-metal transition in onedimensional Mott-Peierls chains. It is well established that the quantum many-body configuration interaction method captures the low-energy properties of the nanoscale systems such as graphene [10].…”