Visualization of current filaments in <i>n</i>-GaAs by photoluminescence quenching

Abstract

Hot electrons in semiconductors are known to quench radiative impurity and exciton recombination photoluminescence. This effect has been applied in a low invasive technique to determine the spatial form of current filaments generated by impurity breakdown in high purity n-GaAs epitaxial layers at low temperatures. Observations on samples with Corbino disc contacts clearly demonstrate symmetry breaking and self-organization by the current filamentation.