CURRENT FILAMENT DYNAMICS IN N-GAAS

Experiments on the controlled generation of up to 20 current filaments in n-type GaAs have been performed in the electric field region, wher e impurity impact-ionization avalanche breakdown takes place. This str ongly nonlinear system is found to be very sensitive to small deviatio ns of the technological parameters. in particular, we present the resu lts of time-resolved current measurements on two filaments connected i n parallel, which compete for the impressed total current due to nonlo cal coupling via a common load resistor The observed switching time co nstants down to 100 ns make this system very interesting as a ''winner takes all'' element in synergetic computer applications. (C) 1995 Ame rican Institute of Physics.