High-Field Effects

Authors :: K. Hess
Source :: Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Publication Year :: 1999
Publisher :: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.
Abstract: Electrons and holes contribute to the charge transport in semiconductors, while ordinary charge transport in metals is restricted to electrons only. Another distinctive feature of semiconductor transport is its inherent nonlinearity in high electric fields. The basic phenomena of high field transport are nonlinear conductance; changed responses to magnetic fields; changed high-frequency response, including the dielectric function; and changed confinement in potential wells or at heterojunctions between different semiconductors. Keywords: nonlinearity; high electric fields; semiconductors; Botlzmann equations; hot electrons