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Bistable Behavior Of The Dark Current In Copper-Doped Semi-Insulating Gallium Arsenide, R. A. Roush, K. H. Schoenbach, R. P. Brinkmann

Bioelectrics Publications

The dark current characteristics of gallium arsenide doped with silicon and compensated with diffused copper were found to have a pronounced region of current controlled negative differential conductivity (ndc) similar to the characteristics of a thyristor. The resistivity of the semi‐insulating semiconductor was measured to be 10⁵ Ω cm for applied voltages up to 2.2 kV, which corresponds to an average electric field of 38 kV/cm. At higher voltages, a transition to a stable high current state was observed with a current rate of rise exceeding 10¹¹ A/s. There is evidence of the formation of at least one …