This book presents a systematic, comprehensive and up-to-date description of the physical basis of the balance equation transport theory and its applications in bulk and low-dimensional semiconductors. The different aspects of the balance equation method, originally proposed by C S Ting and the author of the present book, were reviewed in the volume entitled Physics of Hot Electron Transport in Semiconductors (edited by C S Ting, World Scientific, 1992). Since then, this method has been extensively developed and applied to various new fields, such as transport in nonparabolic systems, spatially nonuniform systems and semiconductor devices, miniband conduction of superlattices, hot-electron magnetotransport, effects of impact ionization in transport, microwave-induced magnetoresistance oscillation, radiation-driven transport and electron cooling, etc. Due to its simplicity and effectiveness, the balance equation approach has become a useful tool to tackle the many transport phenomena in semiconductors, and provides a reliable basis for developing theories, modeling devices and explaining experiments.

The book may be used as a textbook by graduate students. It will also benefit researchers in the field by helping them grasp the basic principles and techniques of the method, without having to spend a lot of time digging out the information from widespread literature covering a period of 30 years.

Contents:Main Physical Considerations and Transport Balance Equations; DC Steady-State Transport; Time-Dependent and High-Frequency Transport; Center-of-Mass Velocity Fluctuations, Noise and Diffusion; Effects of Nonequilibrium and Confined Phonons; Systems with Several Species of Carriers; Balance Equation Transport Theory and Electron Correlation; Balance Equation Approach to Magnetotransport; Higher-Order Scatterings and Alternative Formulations of Balance Equation Theory; Weakly Nonuniform Systems, Hydrodynamic Balance Equations; Balance Equations for Hot Electron Transport in an Arbitrary Energy Band; Miniband Transport in Semiconductor Superlattices; Nonparabolic Systems with Magnetic Field, Impact Ionization or under Nonuniform Condition; Carrier Transport in Semiconductors Driven by THz Radiation Fields; Radiation Driven Magnetotransport in Two-Dimensional Systems in Faraday Geometry.