Filamentary injection currents in semi-insulating GaAs

Current filaments have been observed in the post-breakdown region of two-carrier space-charge-limted diodes in silicon and gallium arsenide. An analytical expression for the radial distribution of current in such filaments has been derived using an appropriate model for the total current-electric field problem. This derived expression is solved numerically for semi-insulating GaAs. These analytical results are compared with the experimental observations.