Formation of Spatio-Temporal Structures in Semiconductors

Memory effect in semiconductor gas discharge electronic devices

“…We believe that an inhomogeneous SI GaAs with the current flow localized in small regions of the active electrode area causes the observed variations in peak voltages, multiple NDC regions, peak spreading and exponentially rising background current density J . SGDSs are known to be complex nonlinear dynamic systems which exhibit current instabilities and self-organized formation of spatio-temporal patterns under the influence of strong electric fields [26,47,48]. Detailed study of pressure and illumination on CVC effects is given in [32].…”

Current filamentation in n-GaAs thin films with different contact geometries

“…Microscopic analyses of low temperature impurity breakdown have been based upon Monte Carlo (MC) simulations [27,28] for p-Ge and for n-GaAs [29,30]. Using such microscopic models the nascence of current filaments has been simulated for two-dimensional simplified pointcontact geometries [5,31,32], including also the effect of a transverse magnetic field [33]. While there the contacts were only taken into account by imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions on parts of the rectangular sample edges, here we will model more realistic contact geometries by appropriate small circular areas in the interior of the sample.…”

“…Semiconductors are complex nonlinear dynamic systems which exhibit current instabilities and self-organized formation of spatio-temporal patterns under the influence of strong electric fields [1][2][3][4][5]. Within the past years semiconductors have become a versatile model system for the study of such phenomena since sophisticated growth technologies and spatially and temporally resolved measurement techniques have provided the possibility to investigate semiconductor structures with desired properties.…”

“…In the case of NNDC, the NDC branch is often but not always-depending upon external circuit and boundary conditions-unstable against the formation of field domains, while in the SNDC case current filamentation generally occurs [6]. These primary self-organized spatial patterns may themselves become unstable in secondary bifurcations leading to periodically or chaotically breathing, rocking, moving or spiking filaments or domains, or even solid-state turbulence and spatio-temporal chaos [5]. Over the last years progress has been obtained in elaborate experimental techniques to detect spatially and temporally resolved structures like scanning electron microscopy [7,8], scanning laser microscopy [9][10][11], potential probe measurements [12,13] or quenched photoluminescence [14,15].…”