Abstract
It is predicted on theoretical grounds that additional charge carriers may be injected into a semiconductor by a thin region of high electric field in which avalanche multiplication occurs. The voltage drop across the region may be quite low and associated with a negative resistance for certain values of the current. The observation of the predicted phenomena in germanium is described; it is found that the negative resistance region may cover some hundreds of volts and the response time be as short as 3 × 10-9 sec. The implications of avalanche injection are discussed in connection with solid-state phenomena involving a large current density, and it is shown that any sufficiently small contact is capable of rectification independently of the presence of potential barriers.
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