Chaos in semiconductor band-trap impact ionization

•A new spatially-extended semiconductor carriers transport equation has been introduced.•Existence of chaos has been demonstrated.•As results, many diagrams have been presented.

We introduce a new spatially-extended semiconductor carriers transport equation model, based on generation–recombination process of the band-trap impact ionization under a longitudinal electric field. By means of numerical studies, we demonstrate the existence of chaos. Also, we present many results such as, the lyapunov spectrum, the bifurcation diagram, the phase portrait and the Poincaré surface of section. In addition the basic electric circuit used is found to be helpful in the implementation of a simple and autonomous chaotic oscillator circuit. Furthermore, the obtained results are interesting in the way that they could be useful in avoiding of undesirable chaotic regime in some switching and memory electronic devices.