Correlated insulator collapse due to quantum avalanche via in-gap ladder states
SCIE
SCOPUS
- Title
- Correlated insulator collapse due to quantum avalanche via in-gap ladder states
- Authors
- Han, Jong E.; Aron, Camille; Chen, Xi; Mansaray, Ishiaka; Han, Jae-Ho; Kim, Ki-Seok; Randle, Michael; Bird, Jonathan P.
- Date Issued
- 2023-05
- Publisher
- Nature Research
- Abstract
- The significant discrepancy observed between the predicted and experimental switching fields in correlated insulators under a DC electric field far-from-equilibrium necessitates a reevaluation of current microscopic understanding. Here we show that an electron avalanche can occur in the bulk limit of such insulators at arbitrarily small electric field by introducing a generic model of electrons coupled to an inelastic medium of phonons. The quantum avalanche arises by the generation of a ladder of in-gap states, created by a multi-phonon emission process. Hot-phonons in the avalanche trigger a premature and partial collapse of the correlated gap. The phonon spectrum dictates the existence of two-stage versus single-stage switching events which we associate with charge-density-wave and Mott resistive phase transitions, respectively. The behavior of electron and phonon temperatures, as well as the temperature dependence of the threshold fields, demonstrates how a crossover between the thermal and quantum switching scenarios emerges within a unified framework of the quantum avalanche.
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/119781
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41467-023-38557-8
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 2023-05
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- There are no files associated with this item.
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