Experimental Analysis of Current Oscillations of Semiconductor Barrier Discharge

Abstract

In this study, experimental analysis of current oscillations of semiconductor barrier discharge (SBD) was carried out. In tests, the current oscillations of semiconductor barriers under various strong electric fields in vacuum, air, and nitrogen gas mediums have been investigated. Experiments were carried out by using p- and n-type semiconductor layers, creating single- and double-barrier electrode configurations. In addition, in the study, frequency response of p- and n-type semiconductor layers was investigated in randomly selected 50-, 100-, 200-, 350-, and 500-Hz frequency rates. With the using of experimental data, the voltage-current curves of SBD were created. It was observed that discharge current gives more stable results in Townsend mode. Furthermore, with increasing of test voltage, the discharge passed to the glow mode that contains the formation of unstable current oscillations. When the obtained data were evaluated, it was concluded that medium pressure had a significant effect on the development of SBD at fixed electrode gap. It was seen that current oscillations of semiconductor layers show more stable behavior at low-voltage, low-pressure, and low-frequency values. It has been concluded that electrical breakdown events in semiconductor barriers occur at higher voltage values than the barrier-free system in vacuum medium.