THEORY OF ZENER TUNNELING AND STARK LADDERS IN SEMICONDUCTORS

A realistic multiband and multichannel scattering theory of the Zener current in semiconductors is developed that fully incorporates the per iodic crystal potential and the high electric field in a device. The n on-perturbative treatment of the spatial variation of the electric fie ld in a p-i-n structure permits us to calculate the Zener tunnelling c urrent unambiguously and to explain the interplay between Stark ladder s and Zener tunnelling. For low and intermediate fields, we can expres s our results for the Zener generation rate in terms of analytical res ults that may be used in transport simulations.