Strong electron correlation effects in nonvolatile electronic memory devices

We investigate hysteresis effects in a model for nonvolatile 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 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 realization of a strongly correlated electron device.