Spatial and temporal structure of chaotic instabilities in an electron-hole plasma in Ge

Journal Article · Mon Aug 19 00:00:00 EDT 1985 · Phys. Rev. Lett.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.887· OSTI ID:5274991

Held, G A; Jeffries, C

Helical instabilities in an electron-hole plasma in Ge in parallel dc electric and magnetic fields are known to exhibit chaotic behavior. By fabricating probe contacts along the length of a Ge crystal we study the spatial structure of these instabilities, finding two types: (i) spatially coherent and temporally chaotic helical density waves characterized by strange attractors of fractal dimension dapprox.3, and (ii) beyond the onset of spatial incoherence, instabilities of indeterminately large fractal dimension d>8. A transition between these two types of behavior is observed as the applied fields are increased.

• Research Organization: Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 and Materials and Molecular Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 5274991
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. Lett.; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. Lett.; (United States) Vol. 55:8; ISSN PRLTA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603* -- Materials-- Properties
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
DATA
ELECTRON-HOLE DROPLETS
ELEMENTS
FABRICATION
FLUCTUATIONS
FUNCTIONS
GERMANIUM
HELICAL INSTABILITY
INFORMATION
INSTABILITY
METALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
PROBES
SOLID-STATE PLASMA
THEORETICAL DATA
VARIATIONS