Experimental progress in the nonlinear behavior of semiconductors

During the past five years spontaneous oscillations and chaotic behavior have been observed in the electronic transport of many semiconductors. Whereas the temperature range of some experiments extends up to room temperature, the majority of the measurements have been performed at liquid helium temperatures. We summarize these experimental developments and discuss their impact on the field of nonlinear dynamics which is rapidly progressing at present.     

Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation for nonlinear travelling waves in extrinsic semiconductors

We study the nonlinear state of a travelling-wave instability occurring close to the onset of impact ionization in extrinsic semiconductors. Our investigations are based on a complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). For a simple generation-recombination function including impact ionization and thermal recombination of the charge carriers, we find a supercritical bifurcation of stable travelling waves for most parameter values. The results are compared with a numerical solution of the basic equations of motion. Furthermore, we expect that weak turbulence phenomena should be observed in semiconductors if their specific generation-recombination kinetics leads to a CGLE with appropriate coefficients.     

Noise and correlation functions of hot carriers in semiconductors

We present a unifying theory of electronic noise appropriate to semiconductor materials in the presence of electric fields of arbitrary strength. In addition to thermal noise, a classification scheme for excess noise indicating different microscopic sources of fluctuations responsible for number and mobility fluctuations is provided. On the basis of simple two-level models, numerical calculations using a Monte Carlo technique are performed for the case of p-type Si at 77 K. The primary quantity which is evaluated by the theory is the auto-correlation function of current fluctuations which, subsequently, is analyzed in terms of correlation functions of the relevant physical variables. Accordingly, the corresponding current spectral-densities are determined and then compared with direct experimental results and/or analytical expressions. Important subjects which have been investigated are: (i) the effect of field assisted ionization on generation-recombination noise from shallow impurity levels; (ii) the contribution to the total noise spectrum of cross-correlation terms coupling fluctuations in velocity with those in energy and number; (iii) the current random telegraph signal and the corresponding spectral density associated with a mobility fluctuator. In all cases the numerical calculations are found to be in satisfactory agreement with experiments and/or analytical expressions thus fully supporting the physical reliability of the theoretical approach here proposed.List of the Symbols Used e Absolute value of the electron charge - f Frequency - f Distribution function - g ₁ Scattering strength with the scatter in state 1 - g ₂ Scattering strength with the scatter in state 2 - Reduced Planck constant - j Total current density - j _c Conduction current density - j _d Displacement current density - j _x Component along the x direction of the total current density - k Carrier wavevector - m Carrier effective mass - m ₀ Free electron mass - r Position vector - s Average sound velocity - t Time - u Fraction of ionized carriers - u _i Random telegraph signal related to carrier state - u _m Random telegraph signal related to scatterer state - v _d Ensemble average of the free carrier drift-velocity - v _i Carrier group velocity - v _t Ensemble average of the carrier velocity in the direction transverse to the applied field - v _ix Component along the x direction of the carrier group velocity - v _d ^r Ensemble average of the reduced drift-velocity - v ^r _i Reduced velocity component in the field direction of the i-th particle - v _ix ^j Reduced velocity component along the x axis of the i-th particle in band j - v ^r _ix Reduced velocity component along the x axis of the i-th particle - x _d Ensemble average of the carrier displacement along the x direction from the initial position - x _i Displacement along the x direction of the i-th carrier from the initial position - y _i i-th stochastic parameter - A Cross-sectional area of a homogeneous sample - C _I Auto-correlation function of the total current fluctuations - Auto-correlation function of the total current fluctuations due to mobility fluctuations - D Diffusion coefficient - D _t K Optical deformation potential - E Electrical field strength - E Electric field - E _x Component of the electric field along the x direction - E ₁ ⁰ Acoustic deformation potential - G Conductance - I Total current - I ₀ Total current in the voltage noise operation - I _m Total current associated with mobility fluctuations - I ^V Total current in the current noise operation - K _B Boltzmann constant - L Length of a homogeneous sample - N Number of free carriers which are instantaneously present in the device - N _A Acceptor concentration - N _I Total number of carriers inside the device participating in the transport (here assumed to be constant in time) - N _T Total number of carriers which are instantaneously present in the device - S _I Spectral density of current fluctuations - S _V Spectral density of voltage fluctuations - Spectral density of current fluctuations associated with the mobility fluctuations - Spectral density of current fluctuations due to correlations between fluctuations in number and velocity - Spectral density of current fluctuations due to generation-recombination processes - Spectral density of current fluctuations due to free carrier drift-velocity fluctuations - S _I ^l Longitudinal component with respect to the applied field of the current spectral-density - S _I ^t Transverse component with respect to the applied field of the current spectral-density - T Absolute temperature - T _e Electron temperature - V Electrical potential - V ^I Electrical potential in the voltage noise operation - W Collision rate - Z Small signal impedance - Poole-Frenkel factor - Equilibrium generation rate - _E Field dependent generation rate - Typical energy for thermally escaping from the impurity level - v _d ⁽⁰⁾ Fluctuation of the ensemble average of the driftvelocity associated with Brownian-like motion - v _d ^r(0) Fluctuation of the ensemble average of the reduced drift-velocity associated with Brownian-like motion - Carrier energy - ₀ Vacuum permittivity - _a Energy of the acceptor level - _r Relative static dielectric constant - Angle between initial and final k states - _op Optical phonon equivalent temperature - Mobility - ₀ Chemical potential - ₁ Mobility with the fluctuating scatterer in state 1 - ₂ Mobility with the fluctuating scatterer in state 2 - ₀ Crystal density - _E Field dependent volume recombination rate - _eq Equilibrium volume recombination rate - Conductivity - _g Cross-section for impact ionization - _c Average scattering time - _g Generation time - _l Carrier lifetime - _m Scatterer lifetime - _m1 Mean value of the time spent by the fluctuating scatterer in state 1 - _m2 Mean value of the time spent by the fluctuating scatterer in state 2 - _r Average recombination time - _T Transit time - Scattering rate - _AB Correlation function of the two variables A and B     

Bifurcation phenomena in a periodically driven current filament and a conjecture on the turbulent patterns by computer simulations

Bifurcation routes to chaos in a periodically driven current filament have been studied by computer simulations. By an impact ionization model, theS-shaped currentvoltage curve is perturbed by the dc+ac bias ofE ₀+E _acsin(27f ₀t). The bifurcation maps are described as a function ofE ₀. In the prebreakdown region, the fractal basin boundary, the crisis and the intermittency are discussed, based on the general considerations of the carrier dynamics on the catastrophe manifold. The intermittent burst of the current filament is explained by the destabilization of the weak turbulence generated in the lower branch. In the diffusion-reaction model, the spatio-temporal mode patterns of the transverse carrier profile have revealed the competitive evolution of the hyper-freezing and the firing.     

Spiking in an activator-inhibitor model for elements with S-shaped negative differential conductivity

Self-organized spatio-temporal dynamics of electrical transport is described by a simple noncubic activator-inhibitor system derived for layered semiconductor structures. The model exhibits a novel mode of self-sustained oscillations due to current filaments switching on and off (spiking) which may be periodic or chaotic. Additionally, we obtain complex multifilamentary spatio-temporal patterns. As such phenomena have been observed in various devices exhibiting S-shaped negative differential conductivity, our model is suggested to describe a generic mechanism.     

Logarithmic frequency scaling of semiconductor oscillations caused by a modified saddle-node bifurcation on a limit cycle

The oscillatory behavior of low-temperature impact ionization breakdown inp-type germanium is investigated experimentally. We explain the anomalous scaling behavior of a saddle-node bifurcation on a limit cycle in terms of a simple model approach. It represents the low-dimensional analog to a new type of intermittency proposed recently.     

Theoretical approaches to nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of generation-recombination processes in semiconductors

We present an overview of recent progress in the theoretical modelling of nonlinear and chaotic dynamics induced by generation and recombination processes of charge carriers. Impact ionisation of impurities is the autocatalytic, i.e. destabilizing, step of three different physical mechanisms for spontaneous, self-sustained oscillations of the carrier density. The restoring force is furnished by one of the following three processes: (i) dielectric relaxation of the internal electric field, (ii) energy relaxation of the hot carriers, and (iii) trapping at impurities, where the discrete nature of the individual generationrecombination processes is taken into account.     

Nonlinear response and chaos in semiconductors induced by impact ionization

A review is given of the nonlinear response and chaos induced by impact ionization of neutral shallow donors, observed in n-GaAs. Two kinds of the observation are described; (i) firing wave instability, and (ii) periodically driven current filament. For the firing wave instability, several important aspects are discussed including the selective excitation of the current filaments and the deterministic nature of the firing density wave. The nonlinear response of a periodically driven current filament has been investigated by applying a dc+ac bias of the form ofV _dc+V _ac sin(2f ₀ t), wheref ₀1 MHz. The carrier dynamics and the bifurcation routes to chaos are discussed in terms of the observed phase diagram and the bifurcation map. The deterministic nature of the strange attractors are described in detail in terms of the correlation dimension and the Kolmogorov entropy.