ABSTRACT
Investigations of the electric fluctuations in avalanche diodes enable one to obtain important information concerning the main characteristics of the processes considered including the coefficients and probability of impact ionization for electrons and holes, the dependences of these parameters on the electric field, the number of possible impact ionizations in the multiplication region of the diode, the thickness of this region, the transit time of carriers through this region, the kinetic characteristics of the multiplication current, the value of the carrier primary flow and the contribution of electron and hole components into this flow.
In addition, such investigations make it possible to study the effect of the space charge of the mobile carriers on the electric field in the multiplication region, to understand the features of the individual microscopic electronic processes in this region and to establish the way in which the multiplication factor increases with increasing voltage.
Finally, the fluctuation investigations permit one to establish the occurance of impact ionization processes themselves and, hence, may throw light on problems concerning the nature of different currents in the diode structures.
