Influence of a magnetic field on the effects of hot electrons in n-type InSb

Experimental results are presented related to studying the impact of a magnetic field on the Hahn effect and shock ionization in n-InSb at a temperature of liquid nitrogen. Dependence of the effects on the sample geometry in transverse magnetic fields are discussed. Based on the measurement of volt-ampere characteristics of n-InSb samples it has been found that the dependence of the threshold voltage on length has a minimum, and in strong magnetic fields the threshold voltage shows an increase. The volt-ampere characteristics in a longitudinal magnetic field reveal that the threshold field of the Hahn effect is little dependent on the magnetic field. Measurement of the electron-hole pair generation rate, which represents the most significant quantitative characteristic of shock ionization, shows that in a magnetic field perpendicular to current the measurement results depend heavily on the sample geometry