On the theory of the impurity breakdown in a magnetic field

Impurity breakdown is investigated in the general case of any mechanism of the energy and momentum scattering of hot carriers in presence of a strong or weak transverse magnetic field. Calculations are carried out with the approximation of a parabolic law of dispersion and a scalar effective mass. The general breakdown equation is obtained in an explicit form whose analytical solution is possible in some limiting cases. For some definite scattering mechanisms the breakdown field is obtained in presence of any finite magnetic field. The theoretical and experimental results are found to be in a good agreement.