PROPAGATING HIGH-ELECTRIC-FIELD DOMAINS IN SEMIINSULATING GAAS - EXPERIMENT AND THEORY

Semi-insulating GaAs exhibits, at a field of about 1 kV/cm, a strong n on-Ohmic conduction and negative differential resistance and is conseq uently suitable for the investigation of nonlinear systems and determi nistic chaos. In this paper we explain both experimentally and theoret ically, how the homogeneous electric-field distribution loses its stab ility in favor of a stable, propagating, high-electric-field domain. F urthermore, we provide detailed information about the microscopic stru cture of the steady-state domain and we explain that the onset of chao s is related to the interaction between subsequent domains.