Impact Ionization and Magneto‐Transport in InSb in High Crossed Electric and Magnetic Fields

Abstract

High-field microwave conductivity and impact ionization due to hot carriers are studied experimentally in n-and p-type InSb a t liquid nitrogen temperature in magnetic fields B up to 2.3 T.The employment of high microwave fields instead of dc electric fields allowed to overcome the problem of an uncontrollable breakdown caused by the Hall field a t the precontact regions in high-mobility semiconductors. It is found that the threshold field of impact ionization ET increases with B in n-type as well as in p-type InSb. I n n-InSb at high magnetic fields ( p B >2z) the ratio ET/B is found to be constant and close to that calculated recently by Bruhns and Hiibner. From the measurements of microwave conductivity in prebreakdown fields i t is possible to deduce a n electron Hall drift velocity vy. It is found that vg is a function of the ratio E / B only, although due to the hot electron effects a systematic deviation of vy from the simple relation vy = E / B is observed. a3o~a. E I c n o n b a o~a~~e CBY paaorpeaa Hocmenefi a a p~n a ~O~B O J I H~O xcKnwmTb BJIHHa n e~~p~s e c~a x n o n~x onpeneneaa XojInoBcKaR cKopocTb vy. n o~a a a~o , YTO vg 3aBHCHT M3MepeHa IIpOBOnHMOCTb

Monte Carlo calculations of the electron impact ionization in n-type InSb crystal

“…However, further technological application of InSb transistors is complicated by low-impact ionization threshold field. The impact ionization in n-type InSb crystal has been extensively investigated by applying dc [4] or microwave electric fields [5][6][7]. It was found that the impact ionization threshold field (E th ) increases with the frequency of microwave electric field.…”