High-amplitude high-frequency oscillations of temperature, electron-hole pair concentration, and current in silicon-on-insulator structures

Interacting oscillations of the current, lattice temperature, and concentra tion of thermally generated electron-hole pairs were discovered in silicon films of silicon-on-insulator structures upon their heating with extremely high current. The nature of the oscillations discovered is fundamentally di fferent from what has yet been known. They occur owing to two competing pro cesses: the thermal generation of electron-hole pairs, and the pair concent ration reduction caused by the current flowing through the silicon film wit h nonuniform temperature field. In our experiments the current density reac hed 1.5x10(5) A/cm(2) and the specific power dissipated in the silicon film exceeded 3.6 GW/cm(3). We observed the oscillation frequencies up to 3 MHz and variations of the current and pair concentration were more than tenfol d, while the temperature varied from 700-740 to 950-1300 K. (C) 2000 Americ an Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)01424-9].