Voltage-Controlled Electronic and Magnetic Phase Transitions in Nano-Devices based on Correlated Mott Materials

Matter can exhibit a complicated phase diagram comprising a large number of different electronic and magnetic states.

While phase transitions induced by temperature or pressure variations, doping, and optical pulses have primarily been studied in bulk materials, phase transitions driven by a bias voltage in nano-devices are mostly unexplored.VOLTEMAG will demonstrate how different electronic and magnetic phases can be tuned through the application of a bias voltage when a material is incorporated into a two-terminal nano-device, especially in the case of materials from the strongly correlated oxides family.

The researcher Dr. Anita Halder guided by Prof. S. Sanvito and Dr. A.

Droghetti at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) will develop and use a solid theoretical approach based on the Non-Equilibrium Greens functions, Density Functional Theory and Dynamical Mean-Field Theory to predict and establish the fundamental physics of voltage-induced magnetic (ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic) as well as electronic (metal-insulator) transitions.

Devices relying on electronic phase transitions behave as multi-state transistors and resistive switches, which are currently the key hardware components to implement neuromorphic computers.

The results of VOLTEMAG may therefore lead to possible technological developments, apart from their fundamental character.

VOLTEMAG will then set up an extended search for new optimal materials for potential applications via machine learning algorithms.VOLTEMAG will merge the researchers background in materials modeling with the expertise of the host institution in quantum theory for nano-devices.

The applicant will be trained on several theoretical and computational techniques essential for her future scientific career.

She will be able to expand her scientific interests by being part of a large and dynamic group and she will become an independent and mature researcher.