Relaxation semiconductor diodes: a practical review

Relaxation semiconductors are a class of semiconductor which is now quite common and important, but not often discussed. They occur when the material has high resistivity, often due to compensation, and contains defects due to impurities or damage which enhance the carrier generation-recombination rate. Hence they include semi-insulators. The properties differ from the familiar lifetime semiconductor materials. These and the underlying principles will be outlined using modelling to show that the experimental results found for semi-insulating GaAs and irradiated silicon indicate features typical of this class of semiconductor