Study of Electrical Breakdown Peculiarities in High-Resistivity Compensated p-InSb

Abstract

The phenomenon of impact ionization at T = 77 K and 4.2 K in high‐resistance compensated p‐InSb obtained by heat treatment of n‐InSb followed by a slow cooling is investigated. A deep impurity level characterized by an activation energy of Δε0 ≊ 0.12 eV is inherent to the material. It is shown that at T = 77 K in the samples with the carrier concentration p0 ⪅ 5 × 1012 cm−3 the interband breakdown occurs, while at p0 > 5 × 1012 cm−3 the interband breakdown is preceded by the impurity impact ionization. An interesting abnormal effect is found when applying a magnetic field Hα to the sample at an angle of 10° to 15° with respect to the direction of the electrical field. Some considerations are presented concerning the nature of the peculiarities observed in the electric breakdown.