  We describe a novel effect of the generation of direct current which may
arise in semiconductors or semiconductor microstructures due to a mixing of
coherent electromagnetic radiations of commensurate frequencies. The effect is,
in essence, due to a nonparabolicity of the electron energy bands and is
stronger in systems where this nonparabolicity is greater. We have made exact
calculations in the framework of the Kane model, applicable to narrow gap
semiconductors and the tight-binding model which we employ for a description of
a semiconductor superlattice.
