Abstract
High‐field transport of silicon holes has been analyzed considering carrier excitation to the spin‐orbit band, which is separated by 44 meV from the heavy‐hole and light‐hole bands. Velocity‐field relationships from 6 to 300 K, were interpreted by transport characteristics for holes excited to that band. According to a thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes in hot‐carrier transports, the hole temperature at high electric fields was estimated to be lower than the electron temperature at the same electric fields, due to the short momentum and energy relaxation times for holes in the spin‐orbit band.