Monte Carlo solution to the problem of high-field electron heating in SiO2

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 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{6}$ 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.