Correlated insulator collapse due to quantum avalanche via in-gap ladder states.

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

SUBMITTER: Han JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10203265 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature