Effect of temperature and illumination on streamer discharges in cadmium sulfide and cadmium selenide single crystals

Abstract

The excitation conditions, the orientation, the radiation spectra of streamer discharges and the effect of laser illumination and temperature on the properties of streamers in cadmium sulfide single crystals has appeared in previous studies. Light generation in CdSe single crystals and in the mixed compounds CdS/sub x/Se/sub 1-x/ was obtained with streamer excitation through detailed information on the crystallographic orientation of the streamers and radiation spectra of these crystals. In this paper, the authors present new data on the effect of the temperature and illumination in the region 77-520/sup 0/K on the probability of excitation and the orientation of streamer discharges in cadmium sulfide crystals; the characteristic features of excitation, orientation, and luminescence spectra of streamer discharges in CdS/sub x/Se/sub 1-x/. The crystals were illuminated with radiation from an incandescent lamp with controllable intensity in the spectral range 560-580 nm and by impulsive radiation from an LGT-21 nitrogen laser (wavelength = 337.1 nm and I/sub e/ = 30 kW/cm/sup 2/. The resistivity of the crystalline plates as a function of the illumination intensity was determined from measurements of the photoconductivity. The streamer illumination of the discharge was separated from the illumination background by interference light filters.