Dynamic Control of Metal-Insulator Transitions Out of Equilibrium

Dynamic switching between different phases of quantum matter offers many exciting theoretical and practical possibilities. We present recent results from our studies of switching across the Mott metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model within the framework of non-equilibrium DMFT. We find that the metal to insulator transition is relatively easy to drive but for many quenches the insulator to metal transition occurs over a very long timescale. We present quench protocols that are able to overcome this difficulty and demonstrate controllable switching across the phase boundary in both directions.