  The insulator-to-metal transition in Mott insulators is the key mechanism for
a novel class of electronic devices, belonging to the Mottronics family.
Intense research efforts are currently devoted to the development of specific
control protocols, usually based on the application of voltage, strain,
pressure and light excitation. The ultimate goal is to achieve the complete
control of the electronic phase transformation, with dramatic impact on the
performance, for example, of resistive switching devices. Here, we investigate
the simultaneous effect of external voltage and excitation by ultrashort light
pulses on a single Mottronic device based on a V$_2$O$_3$ epitaxial thin film.
The experimental results, supported by finite-element simulations of the
thermal problem, demonstrate that the combination of light excitation and
external electrical bias drives a volatile resistivity drop which goes beyond
the combined effect of laser and Joule heating. Our results impact on the
development of protocols for the non-thermal control of the resistive switching
transition in correlated materials.
