Field screening in insulating crystals: The quasistatic case

A study is made of a metal-dielectric-semiconductor-dielectric-metal structure subjected to a linearly increasing external voltage. On the assumption of quasistatic screening conditions, the carrier-density and field distribution in the near-anode and nearcathode regions of the semiconductor are determined. This distribution proves to be nonuniform not only in the region of the surface space charge induced by the external field, but also within the interior of the semiconductor to a depth E₀·t_M/₀, where is the lifetime and the mobility of the carriers, E₀/₀ is the rise rate of the external field, and t_M is the Maxwellian relaxation time. The character of the distribution for opposite faces of the semiconductor is different, since in the near-cathode region for n-type semiconductors allowance must be made for the effect of the uncompensated space charge of the current carriers on the conductivity.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 2, pp. 7–10, February, 1973.We are indebted to G. M. Guro and V. B. Sandomirskii for a discussion of the work.