Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : Fluctuations of the carrier density causes instabilities of the electrically uniform state in conductors with a negative differential resistance. Transitions to electrically non-uniform states are studied, based on evolution criterions derived after Glansdorff and Prigogine. The method enables us to analyze the phenomena in an analogous way as we discuss the thermodynamics of the usual two-phase separations. © 1975, THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.