Avalanche breakdown in GaTa4Se8 - xTex narrow-gap Mott insulators

被引：102

作者：

Guiot, V. ^{[1
]}

Cario, L. ^{[1
]}

Janod, E. ^{[1
]}

Corraze, B. ^{[1
]}

Phuoc, V. Ta ^{[2
]}

Rozenberg, M. ^{[3
]}

Stoliar, P. ^{[3
]}

Cren, T. ^{[4
]}

Roditchev, D. ^{[4
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Nantes, CNRS, Inst Mat Jean Rouxel IMN, F-44322 Nantes, France

[2] Univ F Rabelais, CNRS UMR 7347, GREMAN, F-37200 Tours, France

[3] Univ Paris 11, CNRS UMR 8502, Phys Solides Lab, F-91405 Orsay, France

[4] Univ Paris 06, CNRS UMR 7588, Inst Nanosci Paris, F-75005 Paris, France

来源：

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 2013年 / 4卷

关键词：

POSSIBLE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY; BANDGAP SEMICONDUCTORS; ELECTRONIC-PROPERTIES; CRITICAL-BEHAVIOR; TRANSITIONS; MEMORIES; WIDE;

D O I：

10.1038/ncomms2735

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Mott transitions induced by strong electric fields are receiving growing interest. Recent theoretical proposals have focused on the Zener dielectric breakdown in Mott insulators. However, experimental studies are still too scarce to conclude about the mechanism. Here we report a study of the dielectric breakdown in the narrow-gap Mott insulators GaTa4Se8 (-) Te-x(x). We find that the I-V characteristics and the magnitude of the threshold electric field (E-th) do not correspond to a Zener breakdown, but rather to an avalanche breakdown. E-th increases as a power law of the Mott-Hubbard gap (E-g), in surprising agreement with the universal law E-th proportional to E-g(2.5) reported for avalanche breakdown in semiconductors. However, the delay time for the avalanche that we observe in Mott insulators is over three orders of magnitude greater than in conventional semiconductors. Our results suggest that the electric field induces local insulator-to-metal Mott transitions that create conductive domains that grow to form filamentary paths across the sample.

引用

页数：6

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