Filament Dynamics in Resistive Switching

The hallmark of nonequilibrium phase transitions is the strong spatial inhomogeneity associated with bi-stability of macroscopic phases. We consider the resistive switching in transition metal oxides as a prototypical nonequilibrium phase transition associated with an equilibrium phase transition. We analyze the behavior of the hysteretic behavior of I-V relations in the resistive switching, especially the negative differential resistance regime during the reverse sweep of applied voltage. We show that the peculiar I-V behavior is closely related to the bi-stability of the metallic and insulating phases and the dynamics of the metallic filament, and investigate the filament dynamics in terms of the minimum entropy production principle in the nonequilibrium theormodynamics.