This research and reference text provides up-to-date coverage of the latest research on hot carriers in semiconductors, with a focus on the background, theoretical approaches, measurements and physical understanding required to engage with the field. Pitched at an introductory level, it equips researchers transitioning from optics to fully understand the role of hot carriers in semiconductors, and is a core text for graduate courses in hot carrier phenomena.

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 volume contains invited and contributed papers of the Ninth International Conference on Hot Carriers in Semiconductors (HCIS-9), held July 3 I-August 4, 1995 in Chicago, Illinois. In all, the conference featured 15 invited oral presentations, 60 contributed oral presentations, and 105 poster presentations, and an international contingent of 170 scientists. As in recent conferences, the main themes of the conference were related to nonlinear transport in semiconductor heterojunctions and included Bloch oscillations, laser diode structures, and femtosecond spectroscopy. Interesting questions related to nonlinear transport, size quantization, and intersubband scattering were addressed that are relevant to the new quantum cascade laser. Many lectures were geared toward quantum wires and dots and toward nanostructures and mesoscopic systems in general. It is expected that such research will open new horizons to nonlinear transport studies. An attempt was made by the program committee to increase the number of presen tations related directly to devices. The richness of nonlocal hot electron effects that were discussed as a result, in our opinion, suggests that future conferences should further encourage reports on such device research. On behalf of the Program and International Advisory Committees, we thank the participants, who made the conference a successful and pleasant experience, and the support of the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We are also indebted to Mrs. Sara Starkey and Mrs.

A comprehensive account of the latest developments in the rapidly expanding area of Semiconductor Technology. Main topics covered include real space transfer/heterostructures, ultrafast studies, optical studies, transport theory, devices, ballistic transport, scattering processes and hot phonons, tunnelling, far infrared and magnetic field studies and impact ionization/noise/chaos. Other aspects include the use of femtosecond lasers in investigating transient hot carrier effects on femtosecond timescales, magnetotransport and carrier-carrier interactions.

This book provides readers with a variety of tools to address the challenges posed by hot carrier degradation, one of today’s most complicated reliability issues in semiconductor devices. Coverage includes an explanation of carrier transport within devices and book-keeping of how they acquire energy (“become hot”), interaction of an ensemble of colder and hotter carriers with defect precursors, which eventually leads to the creation of a defect, and a description of how these defects interact with the device, degrading its performance.