Streamer in high gain GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switches

Author

Liu, Hong ; Ruan, Chengli

Author_Institution

Coll. of Phys. Electron., Univ. of Electron. Sci. & Technol. of China, Chengdu, China

fYear

2009

fDate

June 28 2009-July 2 2009

Firstpage

663

Lastpage

668

Abstract

The streamer formation and propagation in high gain semi-insulating (SI) GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) is analyzed in detail. This streamer model on the basis of photo-ionization, growing domain, and the collective impact ionization (CII) mechanism can explain the propagation velocity and the branch and the bend of streamer. This model is characterized by introducing the growing domain between photo-ionization and collective avalanche carrier generation during each stage in which the streamer forms. The calculated results of photo-ionization effects and the propagation velocities of streamer imply that this model is reasonable because the results are consistent with the reported experimental observations.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; discharges (electric); gallium arsenide; impact ionisation; photoconducting switches; photoionisation; GaAs; avalanche carrier generation; collective impact ionization; photo-ionization; photoconductive semiconductor switches; propagation velocity; streamer formation; Cathodes; Charge carrier density; Electric breakdown; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Impact ionization; Laser modes; Laser theory; Photoconducting devices; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Pulsed Power Conference, 2009. PPC '09. IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4064-1

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-4065-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PPC.2009.5386386

Filename

5386386