Karl Franzens University Graz

Graz University of Technology 

Diverse Mechanisms in Resistive Switching
Jong Han
SUNY at Buffalo
16:15 - 17:15 Tuesday 20 May 2025 TUG

Resistive switching (RS), the sudden change of resistance of materials driven by an electric field, has been a subject of intense research for many decades. Despite the similarities from the (equilibrium) metal-insulator transition in condensed matter physics, the RS has only recently gained theoretical understanding due to the lack of theoretical platforms such as statistical principles. The RS comes from highly diverse origins, such as electromigration, impact ionization, and mechanisms yet to be discovered. In this talk, I will present recent activities in my group in search of theoretical frameworks to describe various aspects of the RS transition: (1) nonequilibrium-controlled broken symmetry states (charge-density-wave) leading to meta-stable resistive states and negative differential resistance in NbO2, (2) novel theory of nonequilibrium quantum instability of a simple band under an electric field, and (3) interplay of an electric field and disorder in the variable-range-hopping mechanism and its scaling in the high-field regime.

(1) N. Kumar et al, Adv. Electron. Mater. DOI: 10.1002/aelm.202400877
(2) X. Chen and J. E. Han, Phys. Rev. B 109, 054307 (2024)
(3) K. Mozumdar et al, arXiv:2503.09539, arXiv:2503.17628

Note: Seminar not officially part of the Physics Colloquium