Abstract
In this paper, some interesting features of a microelectronic gas discharge device with GaP semiconductor are reported. The device is a complicated plasma system with a metal anode and a GaP cathode. A discharge occurs in the micro-scaled gap, when a voltage larger than the breakdown value is applied between these electrodes. Since large region of applied voltages are scanned in the microelectronic gas discharge device, both Townsend and glow regimes are clearly observed and a complete electrical and optical responses of the device has been clarified. Following the increase of U gradually, different light emission intensities occur as a result of discharge current I. An IR light source is also used in order to test the IR excitation of the microstructure. Although it has been believed that the GaP is sensitive to UV and visible regions, it has been proven for the first time that the IR sensitivity of GaP can be enhanced by using microelectronic gas discharge device, when an appropriate parameter set is applied. Moreover, a negative differential resistance regime, which is important for the high frequency microwave applications, has been observed at moderate voltages. In addition to the negative differential resistance regime, certain hysteresis behaviour is also observed in the sweep up/down cases of U. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.20.1.6173
Highlights
Gallium phosphide (GaP) is one of a III–V semiconductors with an indirect wide-band-gap (WBG) of 2.26 eV at room temperature and used in many electrical, optical and electronics applications such as luminance diode [1], sensor nanodevices [2], acousto-optical modulator [3] and optical limiter [4]
The exploration of an microelectronic gas discharge device (MGDD) with GaP cathode has proven that both the gaseous microdischarge gap and GaP semiconductor material dominate the electrical features of the system
The detailed measurements indicate the importance of the charge carriers, which are responsible for the current formation in the system
Summary
Gallium phosphide (GaP) is one of a III–V semiconductors with an indirect wide-band-gap (WBG) of 2.26 eV at room temperature and used in many electrical, optical and electronics applications such as luminance diode [1], sensor nanodevices [2], acousto-optical modulator [3] and optical limiter [4]. The electrons can be produced via the associative ionization [11], the desorption from barriers or the electron emission from metastable species [12] Both theoretical and experimental findings prove that the applied voltage U, which enables to produce a current between the electrodes, is called as the breakdown voltage UB and the Paschen curve can be obtained as function of the multiplication of p and d [11], [13], [14]. Researches have been realized in this direction over the last decade It is known from the literature that the negative differential resistance (NDR) affects the feature of microwave devices [16]. GaP semiconductor indicates a hysteresis behavior, when the applied voltage is sweeped up and down Such a hysteresis effect can be explained by the existence of bistable potential well inside the gas discharge device.
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