Dielectric breakdown and avalanches at non-equilibrium metal-insulator transitions

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on the finite temperature Mott transition in VO2 films, we propose a classical coarse-grained dielectric breakdown model where each degree of freedom represents a nanograin which transitions from insulator to metal with increasing temperature and voltage at random thresholds due to quenched disorder. We describe the properties of the resulting non-equilibrium metal-insulator transition and explain the universal characteristics of the resistance jump distribution. We predict that by tuning voltage, another critical point is approached, which separates a phase of "bolt"-like avalanches from percolation-like ones.