Abstract Electron transport and emission is simulated by two Monte Carlo (MC) programs. The first version is based on elastic Mott cross sections and inelastic loss functions with full dispersion Δ E = ℏω ( q ), including electron impact and subsequent cascading processes. Surface effects like surface plasmons and the quantum mechanical surface transmittivity have been taken into account too. Especially for dielectric materials like SiO 2 and applied electric fields a second MC version is developed based on the electron scattering with acoustic and optical phonons, intra- and intervalley scattering and impact valence band ionization. A comparison of both versions results in a good agreement still in the energy region of several eV, but a predominance of the phonon-based second version is found for very low electron energies, e.g., for hot and ballistic electrons in dielectric materials.