Tunneling ionization in high frequency fields as well as in static fields is suggested as a method for the characterization of deep impurities in semiconductors. It is shown that an analysis of the field and temperature dependences of the ionization probability allows to obtain defect parameters like the charge of the impurity, tunneling times, the Huang-Rhys parameter, the difference between optical and thermal binding energy, and the basic structure of the defect adiabatic potentials. Compared to static fields, high frequency electric fields in the terahertz-range offer various advantages, as they can be applied contactlessly and homogeneously even to bulk samples using the intense radiation of a high power pulsed far-infrared laser. Furthermore, impurity ionization with terahertz radiation can be detected as photoconductive signal with a very high sensitivity in a wide range of electric field strengths. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)04508-4].