Strong electron correlation effects in non-volatile electronic memory devices

We investigate hysteresis effects in a model for non-volatile memory devices. Two mechanisms are found to produce hysteresis effects qualitatively similar to those often experimentally observed in heterostructures of transition metal oxides. One of them is a novel switching effect based on a metal-insulator transition due to strong electron correlations at the dielectric/metal interface. The observed resistance switching phenomenon could be the experimental realisation of a novel type of strongly correlated electron device.