Steady State Properties of Lock-On Current Filaments in GaAs

Abstract

Collective impact ionization has been used to explain lock-on in semi-insulating GaAs under high-voltage bias. We have used this theory to study some of the steady state properties of lock-on current filaments. In steady state, the heat gained from the field is exactly compensated by the cooling due to phonon scattering. In the simplest approximation, the carrier distribution approaches a quasi-equilibrium Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. In this report, we examine the validity of this approximation. We find that this approximation leads to a filament carrier density which is much lower than the high density needed to achieve a quasi-equilibrium distribution. Further work on this subject is in progress.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA639421

Entities

People

  • Charles W. Myles
  • Harold P. Hjalmarson
  • K. Kambour
  • Samsoo Kang

Organizations

  • Texas Tech University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Band Structures
  • Charge Carriers
  • Conduction Bands
  • Distribution Functions
  • Electrons
  • Energy Bands
  • Filaments
  • High Voltage
  • Ionization
  • Pulsed Power
  • Scattering
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Solid State Physics
  • Steady State
  • Valence Bands
  • Voltage

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics