Plasma and Current Instabilities in Semiconductors

International Series on the Science of the Solid State

1st Edition - January 1, 1981

Author: Juras Pozhela

Editor: Brian Pamplin

eBook ISBN:

9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 8 9 3 8 - 3

Plasma and Current Instabilities in Semiconductors details the main ideas in the physics of plasma and current instabilities in semiconductors. The title first covers plasma in… Read more

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Plasma and Current Instabilities in Semiconductors details the main ideas in the physics of plasma and current instabilities in semiconductors. The title first covers plasma in semiconductors, and then proceeds to tackling waves in plasma. Next, the selection details wave instabilities in plasma and drift instabilities. The text also discusses hot electrons, along with the instabilities due to inter-valley electron transfer. The next chapters talks about avalanche and recombination instabilities. The last chapter deals with plasma streams. The book will be of great use to student and professional electronics engineers and technicians.

List of Main Symbols

Chapter I. Plasma in Semiconductors

1. Main Definitions

2. The Dispersion Equation

3. Drift Currents of Charged Particles and Electric Conductivity of a Semiconductor in Electric and Magnetic Fields

4. The Boltzmann Kinetic Equation

5. The Effective Mass and the Band Structure

6. Scattering Mechanisms and Relaxation Times

Chapter II. Waves in Plasma

1. Waves in a Cold Plasma in the Absence of Magnetic Field

2. Waves in a Single-Component Plasma Placed in Magnetic Field

3. The Multi-Component Plasma. Magnetohydrodynamic and Magnetosonic Waves

4. The Effect on Waves of Thermal Motion of Particles. Electrosonic Waves. Landau Attenuation

5. Helicon Waves in Metals

6. Waves in a Semiconductor with Anisotropic Valleys

7. Experimental Observation of Magnetoplasma Waves in Semiconductors

8. Helicon Spectroscopy

Chapter III. Wave Instabilities in Plasma

1. Criteria of Instability

2. Practical Methods of Determining Instability Criteria

3. The Negative Differential Conductivity

4. Energy Transfer to Waves in Plasma

Chapter IV. Drift Instabilities

1. The Interaction of the Charge Carrier Flux and Waves in the Plasma with the Acoustical Waves in the Lattice

2. Interaction of the Drift Current of Charge Carriers with Waves in an Unbounded Plasma

3. Interaction of Streams of Charge Carriers and Waves in a Bounded Plasma

Chapter V. Hot electrons

1. The Mean Energy and the Drift Velocity of Hot Electrons. Thermal Instability

2. The Energy Distribution Function of Hot Electrons

3. Heating of Electrons in Many-Valley Semiconductors of the Type AIII BV and AII BVI

4. The Heating of Electrons in Germanium and Silicon

5. The Monte Carlo Method

Chapter VI. Instabilities Due to Inter-valley Electron Transfer

1. Electric Domains. Gunn Effect

2. Operation Modes of Diodes with Negative Bulk Conductivity

3. Absolute Negative Resistance

Chapter VII. Avalanche Instabilities

1. Avalanche Instability

2. Mechanisms of Charge Carrier Generation by the Electric Field

3. Avalanche Structures

Chapter VIII. Recombination Instabilities

1. Recombination of Hot Electrons

2. Recombination Waves

3. Injection Instabilities

Chapter IX. Plasma Streams

1. Plasma Streams through a Semiconductor with Variable Cross-section

2. Pinch-effect

3. Kink and Gradient Instabilities

Appendix

References

Index