Monte Carlo Solution to the Problem of High-Field Electron Heating in SiO2

Abstract

By use of a Monte Carlo technique, it is shown that high-field electron transport in the Si${\mathrm{O}}_2$ conduction band is controlled by LO-phonon scattering for fields below 3 × ${10}^6$ V/cm and by nonpolar scattering with acoustic phonons at higher fields. This accounts for recent experimental results indicating that an energy-loss mechanism, previously neglected, is effective at high fields.