Characteristics of radiation sensitive semiconductor gas discharge structure

Gas breakdown at H2 gas of a planar gas discharge system was studied experimentally at different interelectrode distances, different inner diameters of the electrode areas and different pressures. The Current-Voltage (CVC) and Radiation-Voltage characteristics (RVC) of the gas discharge system with GaAs cathode was studied. Experimental results which was obtained from H2 gas were comparisoned with the results from air. Stable discharge regions and controllable working mode were identified. Also the conditions were underlined which semiconductor gas discharge structure (SGDS) is unstable. N-shape instabilities of CVC and RVC were determined. The presence of deep electonic levels of defects, called EL2 centers, results the N-type NDR of the material, as a consequence, to oscillations in current when a dc voltage of a high magnitude is applied to a GaAs photodetector. Furthermore, the dynamic property of the system in duration of 150 second was investigated.