This article investigates steady-state nonequilibrium conditions in metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors. Steady-state nonequilibrium conditions are of significant interest due to the advent of wide-gap semiconductors in the arena of MOS (or metal–insulator–semiconductor) devicesanddue to the scaling of oxide thickness in Si technology. Two major classes of steady-state nonequilibrium conditions were studied both experimentally and theoretically: (i) steady-state deep depletion and (ii) steady-state low level optical generation. It is found that the identification and subsequent understanding of steady-state nonequilibrium conditions is of significant importance for correct interpretation of electrical measurements such as capacitance–voltage and conductance–voltage measurements. Basic implications of steady-state nonequilibrium conditions were derived for both MOS capacitors with low interfaces state densityDitand for oxide semiconductor interfaces with a pinned Fermi level. Further, a photoluminescence power spectroscopy technique is investigated as a complementary tool for direct-gap semiconductors to studyDitand to monitor the interface quality during device fabrication. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.