Plasma and Current Instabilities in Semiconductors (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Plasma and Current Instabilities in Semiconductors 4
Copyright Page 5
Table of Contents 12
List of Main Symbols 14
CHAPTER 1. PLASMA IN SEMICONDUCTORS 18
1. Main Definitions 18
2. The Dispersion Equation 23
3. Drift Currents of Charged Particles and Electric Conductivity of a Semiconductor in Electric and Magnetic Fields 28
4. The Boltzmann Kinetic Equation 36
5. The Effective Mass and the Band Structure 43
6. Scattering Mechanisms and Relaxation Times 54
CHAPTER 2. WAVES IN PLASMA 63
1. Waves in a Cold Plasma in the Absence of Magnetic Field 66
2. Waves in a Single-Component Plasma Placed in Magnetic Field 70
3. The Multi-Component Plasma. Magnetohydrodynamic and Magnetosonic Waves 84
4. The Effect on Waves of Thermal Motion of Particles. Electrosonic Waves. Landau Attenuation 92
5. Helicon Waves in Metals 97
6. Waves in a Semiconductor with Anisotropie Valleys 98
7. Experimental Observation of Magnetoplasma Waves in Semiconductors 103
8. Helicon Spectroscopy 113
CHAPTER 3. WAVE INSTABILITIES IN PLASMA 124
1. Criteria of Instability 124
2. Practical Methods of Determining Instability Criteria 132
3. The Negative Differential Conductivity 137
4. Energy Transfer to Waves in Plasma 141
CHAPTER 4. DRIFT INSTABILITIES 145
1. The Interaction of the Charge Carrier Flux and Waves in the Plasma with the Acoustical Waves in the Lattice 146
2. Interaction of the Drift Current of Charge Carriers with Waves in an Unbounded Plasma 157
3. Interaction of Streams of Charge Carriers and Waves in a Bounded Plasma 163
CHAPTER 5. HOT ELECTRONS 171
1. The Mean Energy and the Drift Velocity of Hot Electrons. Thermal Instability 172
2. The Energy Distribution Function of Hot Electrons 178
3. Heating of Electrons in Many-Valley Semiconductors of the Type AIII BV and AII BVI 180
4. The Heating of Electrons in Germanium and Silicon 188
5. The Monte Carlo Method 198
CHAPTER 6. INSTABILITIES DUE TO INTER-VALLEY ELECTRON TRANSFER 210
1. Electric Domains. Gunn Effect 210
2. Operation Modes of Diodes with Negative Bulk Conductivity 219
3. Absolute Negative Resistance 224
CHAPTER 7. AVALANCHE INSTABILITIES 226
1. Avalanche Instability 226
2. Mechanisms of Charge Carrier Generation by the Electric Field 229
3. Avalanche Structures 234
CHAPTER 8. RECOMBINATION INSTABILITIES 246
1. Recombination of Hot Electrons 247
2. Recombination Waves 255
3. Injection Instabilities 258
CHAPTER 9. PLASMA STREAMS 262
1. Plasma Streams through a Semiconductor with Variable Cross-section 263
2. Pinch-effect 269
3. Kink and Gradient Instabilities 276
Appendix 284
References 295
Index 312