Auger Recombination in GaAs from First Principles

作者：Steiauf Daniel^*; Kioupakis Emmanouil; Van de Walle Chris G

来源：ACS Photonics, 2014, 1(8): 643-646.

DOI：10.1021/ph500119q

• Auger recombination
• phonons
• efficiency droop
• density functional theory
• electron-phonon coupling
• gallium arsenide

Auger recombination is a significant loss mechanism in many optoelectronic devices. We use first-principles methods based on density functional theory to study the relative importance of direct and indirect phonon-assisted Auger recombination in GaAs and related alloys. Energy and momentum, of the recombining electron-hole pair can be transferred, to an Auger eleetron, (eeh process) or an Auger hole (hhe process). For eeh processes, the direct process is negligibly small compared to the phonon-assisted indirect process in GaAs, while in hhe processes the direct and phonon-assisted processes contribute almost equally The hole processes are about 5 times stronger than the electron processes. In alloys with lower band gaps, the eeh processes become stronger, and below a band gap of 0.8 eV they are as relevant as the hole processes. Our results highlight the importance of indirect processes, even at low band gaps.

• 出版日期2014-8