The area of high field transport in semiconductors has been of interest since the early studies of dielectric breakdown in various materials. It really emerged as a sub-discipline of semiconductor physics in the early 1960's, following the discovery of substantial deviations from Ohm's law at high electric fields. Since that time, it has become a major area of importance in solid state electronics as semiconductor devices have operated at higher frequencies and higher powers. It has become apparent since the Modena Conference on Hot Electrons in 1973, that the area of hot electrons has ex tended weIl beyond the concept of semi-classical electrons (or holes) in homogeneous semiconductor materials. This was exemplified by the broad range of papers presented at the International Conference on Hot Electrons in Semiconductors, held in Denton, Texas, in 1977. Hot electron physics has progressed from a limited phenomeno logical science to a full-fledged experimental and precision theo retical science. The conceptual base and subsequent applications have been widened and underpinned by the development of ab initio nonlinear quantum transport theory which complements and identifies the limitations of the traditional semi-classical Boltzmann-Bloch picture. Such diverse areas as large polarons, pico-second laser excitation, quantum magneto-transport, sub-three dimensional systems, and of course device dynamics all have been shown to be strongly interactive with more classical hot electron pictures.

This review volume is based primarily on the balance equation approach developed since 1984. It provides a simple and analytical description about hot electron transport, particularly, in semiconductors with higher carrier density where the carrier-carrier collision is much stronger than the single particle scattering. The steady state and time-dependent hot electron transport, thermal noise, hot phonon effect, the memory effect, and other related subjects of charge carriers under strong electric fields are reviewed. The application of Zubarev's nonequilibrium statistical operator to hot electron transport and its equivalence to the balance equation method are also presented. For semiconductors with very low carrier density, the problem can be regarded as a single carrier transport which will be treated non-perturbatively by the nonequilibrium Green's function technique and the path integral theory. The last part of this book consists of a chapter on the dynamic conductivity and the shot noise suppression of a double-carrier resonant tunneling system.

This handbook gives a complete and detailed survey of the field of semiconductor physics. It addresses every fundamental principle, the most important research topics and results, as well as conventional and emerging new areas of application. Additionally it provides all essential reference material on crystalline bulk, low-dimensional, and amorphous semiconductors, including valuable data on their optical, transport, and dynamic properties. This updated and extended second edition includes essential coverage of rapidly advancing areas in semiconductor physics, such as topological insulators, quantum optics, magnetic nanostructures and spintronic systems. Richly illustrated and authored by a duo of internationally acclaimed experts in solar energy and semiconductor physics, this handbook delivers in-depth treatment of the field, reflecting a combined experience spanning several decades as both researchers and educators. Offering a unique perspective on many issues, Semiconductor Physics is an invaluable reference for physicists, materials scientists and engineers throughout academia and industry.

Rapid developments in technology have led to enhanced electronic systems and applications. When utilized correctly, these can have significant impacts on communication and computer systems. Transport of Information-Carriers in Semiconductors and Nanodevices is an innovative source of academic material on transport modelling in semiconductor material and nanoscale devices. Including a range of perspectives on relevant topics such as charge carriers, semiclassical transport theory, and organic semiconductors, this is an ideal publication for engineers, researchers, academics, professionals, and practitioners interested in emerging developments on transport equations that govern information carriers.

The purposes of this book are many. First, we must point out that it is not a device book, as a proper treatment of the range of important devices would require a much larger volume even without treating the important physics for submicron devices. Rather, the book is written principally to pull together and present in a single place, and in a (hopefully) uniform treatment, much of the understanding on relevant physics for submicron devices. Indeed, the understand ing that we are trying to convey through this work has existed in the literature for quite some time, but has not been brought to the full attention of those whose business is the making of submicron devices. It should be remarked that much of the important physics that is discussed here may not be found readily in devices at the 1.0-JLm level, but will be found to be dominant at the O.I-JLm level. The range between these two is rapidly being covered as technology moves from the 256K RAM to the 16M RAM chips.

Nonequilibrium hot charge carriers play a crucial role in the physics and technology of semiconductor nanostructure devices. This book, one of the first on the topic, discusses fundamental aspects of hot carriers in quasi-two-dimensional systems and the impact of these carriers on semiconductor devices. The work will provide scientists and device engineers with an authoritative review of the most exciting recent developments in this rapidly moving field. It should be read by all those who wish to learn the fundamentals of contemporary ultra-small, ultra-fast semiconductor devices. - Topics covered include - Reduced dimensionality and quantum wells - Carrier-phonon interactions and hot phonons - Femtosecond optical studies of hot carrier - Ballistic transport - Submicron and resonant tunneling devices

This book will be useful to solid-state scientists, device engineers, and students involved in semiconductor design and technology. It provides a lucid account of band structure, density of states, charge transport, energy transport, and optical processes, along with a detailed description of many devices. It includes sections on superlattices and quantum well structures, the effects of deep-level impurities on transport, and the quantum Hall effect. This 7th edition has been revised and updated, including several new sections.

The present book introduces and develops mathematical techniques for the treatment of nonlinear waves and singular perturbation methods at a level that is suitable for graduate students, researchers and faculty throughout the natural sciences and engineering. The practice of implementing these techniques and their value are largely realized by showing their application to problems of nonlinear wave phenomena in electronic transport in solid state materials, especially bulk semiconductors and semiconductor superlattices. The authors are recognized leaders in this field, with more than 30 combined years of contributions.

On three occasions and at different locations, conferences were held to honor the eightieth birthday of Professor Herbert Frohlich: on the 18th December, 1985, in Liverpool, England; on the 14th February, 1986, in Stuttgart, Germany; and on the 8th March, 1986, on the Palm Coast, Florida. This Festschrift is a compilation of the papers of those conferences. Frohlich's choice of problems, from the earliest days, was couched in the phy sics of intrinsically interacting systems of excitation. One example, in which he set the course of research which is still followed, concerned dielectric breakdown, developed from the 1930's over several decades. The interacting systems are the electrons (receiving energy from an electric field) and lattice atom motion (taking energy from the electrons via "electron-phonon" interaction, hence heat dissipa tion). There is a threshold field above which the latter cannot keep up with the former, and the combined system (electrons plus phonons) "runs away"; that is to say, collectively it switches to a new state.