Bj. Hankla et Pf. Williams, SCHLIEREN PHOTOGRAPHY OF CURRENT FILAMENTS IN SURFACE-RELATED BREAKDOWN OF SILICON, IEEE transactions on plasma science, 24(1), 1996, pp. 67-68
We have used a modified Schlieren technique to photograph current fila
ments formed inside silicon during the very early stages of surface-re
lated breakdown. We believe that the features we see are due to heatin
g in the filamentary channel. The very rapid formation of these channe
ls suggests that they result from streamer-like phenomena in the bulk
silicon.