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.

Inhalt
The Lectures.- 1. Phenomenological Physics of Hot Carriers in Semiconductors.- 2. Electronic Structure of Semiconductors.- 3 The Electron-Phonon Interaction in Semiconductors.- 4. Semi-Classical Boltzmann Transport Theory in Semiconductors.- 5. Quantum Transport Theory.- 6. Carrier-Carrier Interactions and Screening.- 7. Multiphonon Scattering.- 8. Experimental Studies of Nonlinear Transport in Semiconductors.- 8a. Time-of-Flight Techniques..- 9. Hot-Electron Transport in Quantizing Magnetic Fields.- 10. Hot Electron Distribution Function in Quantizing Magnetic Fields.- 11. Hot Electron Effects in Semiconductor Devices.- 12. Optical Excitation of Hot Carriers.- 13. Theoretical Concepts of Photoexcited Hot Carriers.- 14. The Physics of Nonlinear Absorption and Ultrafast Carrier Relaxation in Semiconductors.- 15. Nonequilibrium Phonon Processes.- 16. Noise and Diffusion of Hot Carriers.- The Seminars.- 1. High-Field Transport of Holes in Elemental Semiconductors.- 2. Nonlinear Transport in Quasi-One-Dimensional Conductors.- 3. Optical Absorption of Solids Under Laser Irradiation.- 4. High Intensity Picosecond Photoexcitation of Semiconductors.- 5. Hot Electron Contributions in Two and Three Terminal Semiconductor Devices.- 6. Modeling of Carrier Transport in the Finite Collision Duration Regime: Effects in Submicron Semiconductor Devices.- 7. On the Physics of Sub-Micron Semiconductor Devices..