  We develop a theory of laser beam generation of shift currents in
non-centrosymmetric semiconductors. The currents originate when the excited
electrons transfer between different bands or scatter inside these bands, and
asymmetrically shift their centers of mass in elementary cells. Quantum kinetic
equations for hot-carrier distributions and expressions for the induced
currents are derived by nonequilibrium Green functions. In applications, we
simplify the approach to the Boltzmann limit and use it to model laser-excited
GaAs in the presence of LO phonon scattering. The shift currents are calculated
in a steady-state regime.
