V. I. Brylevsky, A. V. Rozhkov, I. A. Smirnova, P. B. Rodin, I. V. Grekhov, “Anomalous dynamics of the residual voltage across a gallium-arsenide diode upon subnanosecond avalanche switching”, Pisma v Zhurnal Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, 2015, Volume 41, Issue 7,Pages <nobr>1

This article is cited in 14 papers

Anomalous dynamics of the residual voltage across a gallium-arsenide diode upon subnanosecond avalanche switching

V. I. Brylevsky, A. V. Rozhkov, I. A. Smirnova, P. B. Rodin, I. V. Grekhov

Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg

Abstract: A qualitative difference between high-voltage gallium-arsenide diodes and similar silicon devices is found experimentally upon ultrafast switching in the delayed avalanche breakdown regime. It is shown that, following switching, a gallium-arsenide diode remains in a highly conductive state throughout the entire duration of the applied voltage pulse and the recovery of the reverse voltage across the $p$–$n$ junction due to the dispersal of nonequilibrium electron-hole plasma is not observed. In the same interval of time (2 ns in our experiment), a silicon diode passes completely into a blocking state. The residual voltage amplitude for a gallium-arsenide diode is an order of magnitude lower than that for a silicon device. The discovered effect is similar to a known effect of “sticking” of gallium-arsenide diode switches (the lock-on effect), which are triggered by a laser pulse, in a conductive state.

Received: 13.11.2014