Bj. Hankla et al., SURFACE-RELATED BREAKDOWN IN SILICON - IMAGING OF CURRENT FILAMENTS IN LONG P(-N(-)-N(+) STRUCTURES()), Applied physics letters, 67(26), 1995, pp. 3942-3944
We present Schlieren images which show the existence and evolution of
current filaments during the very early stages of surface-related brea
kdown inside 1 cm silicon p(+)-n(-)-n(+) structures. These images conf
irm our previous finding that breakdown occurs in the silicon rather t
han in the ambient, and suggest that a streamerlike mechanism may be r
esponsible. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.