Electron transport in III-V semiconductors, especially the Ga/As/AlGaAs material systems, is studied in various nonequilibrium situations. Throughout the study, a Monte Carlo simulation method is used for the analysis of transport properties in the semiclassical Boltzmann transport picture. The present work essentially consists of two aspects. The first topic is hot electron transport in GaAs, focusing on the electron impact ionization effects. The dependence of impact ionization rates on the details of the band structure is investigated by using two (local and nonlocal) pseudopotential methods. The spatial evolution of the ionization rate and the average electron energy are studied in nonuniform fields characteristic of p+-n junctions. The effects of field fluctuations due to the random distribution of dopants are studied as well. The possibility of new GaAs electron-emitting diodes is explored numerically and compared with the corresponding Si devices. The second aspect deals with the effects of conduction band discontinuities on the electron transport. In particular, one-dimensional heterostructures are modeled to study the nonlinear transport across heterointerfaces. (RH).

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 textbook is aimed at second-year graduate students in Physics, Electrical Engineering, or Materials Science. It presents a rigorous introduction to electronic transport in solids, especially at the nanometer scale.Understanding electronic transport in solids requires some basic knowledge of Hamiltonian Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Condensed Matter Theory, and Statistical Mechanics. Hence, this book discusses those sub-topics which are required to deal with electronic transport in a single, self-contained course. This will be useful for students who intend to work in academia or the nano/ micro-electronics industry.Further topics covered include: the theory of energy bands in crystals, of second quantization and elementary excitations in solids, of the dielectric properties of semiconductors with an emphasis on dielectric screening and coupled interfacial modes, of electron scattering with phonons, plasmons, electrons and photons, of the derivation of transport equations in semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures somewhat at the quantum level, but mainly at the semi-classical level. The text presents examples relevant to current research, thus not only about Si, but also about III-V compound semiconductors, nanowires, graphene and graphene nanoribbons. In particular, the text gives major emphasis to plane-wave methods applied to the electronic structure of solids, both DFT and empirical pseudopotentials, always paying attention to their effects on electronic transport and its numerical treatment. The core of the text is electronic transport, with ample discussions of the transport equations derived both in the quantum picture (the Liouville-von Neumann equation) and semi-classically (the Boltzmann transport equation, BTE). An advanced chapter, Chapter 18, is strictly related to the ‘tricky’ transition from the time-reversible Liouville-von Neumann equation to the time-irreversible Green’s functions, to the density-matrix formalism and, classically, to the Boltzmann transport equation. Finally, several methods for solving the BTE are also reviewed, including the method of moments, iterative methods, direct matrix inversion, Cellular Automata and Monte Carlo. Four appendices complete the text.

Particle simulation of semiconductor devices is a rather new field which has started to catch the interest of the world's scientific community. It represents a time-continuous solution of Boltzmann's transport equation, or its quantum mechanical equivalent, and the field equation, without encountering the usual numerical problems associated with the direct solution. The technique is based on first physical principles by following in detail the transport histories of indi vidual particles and gives a profound insight into the physics of semiconductor devices. The method can be applied to devices of any geometrical complexity and material composition. It yields an accurate description of the device, which is not limited by the assumptions made behind the alternative drift diffusion and hydrodynamic models, which represent approximate solutions to the transport equation. While the development of the particle modelling technique has been hampered in the past by the cost of computer time, today this should not be held against using a method which gives a profound physical insight into individual devices and can be used to predict the properties of devices not yet manufactured. Employed in this way it can save the developer much time and large sums of money, both important considerations for the laboratory which wants to keep abreast of the field of device research. Applying it to al ready existing electronic components may lead to novel ideas for their improvement. The Monte Carlo particle simulation technique is applicable to microelectronic components of any arbitrary shape and complexity.

For ten days at the end of September, 1987, a group of about 75 scientists from 21 different countries gathered in a restored monastery on a 750 meter high piece of rock jutting out of the Mediterranean Sea to discuss the simulation of the transport of electrons and photons using Monte Carlo techniques. When we first had the idea for this meeting, Ralph Nelson, who had organized a previous course at the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture, suggested that Erice would be the ideal place for such a meeting. Nahum, Nelson and Rogers became Co-Directors of the Course, with the help of Alessandro Rindi, the Director of the School of Radiation Damage and Protection, and Professor Antonino Zichichi, Director of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre. The course was an outstanding success, both scientifically and socially, and those at the meeting will carry the marks of having attended, both intellectually and on a personal level where many friendships were made. The scientific content of the course was at a very high caliber, both because of the hard work done by all the lecturers in preparing their lectures (e. g. , complete copies of each lecture were available at the beginning of the course) and because of the high quality of the "students", many of whom were accomplished experts in the field. The outstanding facilities of the Centre contributed greatly to the success. This volume contains the formal record of the course lectures.

This volume presents the application of the Monte Carlo method to the simulation of semiconductor devices, reviewing the physics of transport in semiconductors, followed by an introduction to the physics of semiconductor devices.