Current instabilities in the Auger transistor

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the investigation of current instabilities in the AlSiO 2nSi Auger transistor. We succeeded for the first time in creating the Auger transistor, in which we used a metal-insulator heterojunction instead of a widegap semiconductor. The Auger transistor base is created by the holes, which are induced by an electric field that exists in the oxide layer and is formed as a self-consistent quantum well near the n-silicon surface. The base width is about 10 Å and the well depth is equal to 0.7 eV or higher. The generation of electron-hole pairs by impact ionization (Auger generation) is the fastest physical process in semiconductors, which can be used for amplification and generation of electric signals. The impact ionization and drift regions are practically separated in the Auger transistor. The electron-hole pairs are generated in the transistor base and partly in the collector. The S- and N-type instabilities of the collector current in the Auger transistor in a circuit with a common emitter were investigated.