Investigation on properties of ultrafast switching in a bulk gallium arsenide avalanche semiconductor switch

Journal Article · Fri Mar 07 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866715· OSTI ID:22277961

Hu, Long ^[1]; Su, Jiancang; Ding, Zhenjie; Hao, Qingsong; Yuan, Xuelin ^[2]

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1. Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049 (China)
2. Science and Technology on High Power Microwave Laboratory, Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi'an 710024 (China)

Properties of ultrafast switching in a bulk gallium arsenide (GaAs) avalanche semiconductor switch based on semi-insulating wafer, triggered by an optical pulse, were analyzed using physics-based numerical simulations. It has been demonstrated that when a voltage with amplitude of 5.2 kV is applied, after an exciting optical pulse with energy of 1 μJ arrival, the structure with thickness of 650 μm reaches a high conductivity state within 110 ps. Carriers are created due to photons absorption, and electrons and holes drift to anode and cathode terminals, respectively. Static ionizing domains appear both at anode and cathode terminals, and create impact-generated carriers which contribute to the formation of electron-hole plasma along entire channel. When the electric field in plasma region increases above the critical value (∼4 kV/cm) at which the electrons drift velocity peaks, a domain comes into being. An increase in carrier concentration due to avalanche multiplication in the domains reduces the domain width and results in the formation of an additional domain as soon as the field outside the domains increases above ∼4 kV/cm. The formation and evolution of multiple powerfully avalanching domains observed in the simulations are the physical reasons of ultrafast switching. The switch exhibits delayed breakdown with the characteristics affected by biased electric field, current density, and optical pulse energy. The dependence of threshold energy of the exciting optical pulse on the biased electric field is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 22277961
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANODES
CATHODES
CHARGE CARRIERS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONCENTRATION RATIO
CURRENT DENSITY
DOMAIN STRUCTURE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON DRIFT
ELECTRONS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
PHOTONS
PULSES
SEMICONDUCTOR SWITCHES
SOLID-STATE PLASMA
THRESHOLD ENERGY
TOWNSEND DISCHARGE