Green's-function formalism of band-to-band Auger recombination in semiconductors. Correlation effect

Abstract

A general theory of band-to-band Auger recombination in semiconductors is developed on the basis of the Green's-function formalism. Starting with the density operator we obtain the excess-carrier lifetime in terms of the four-particle Green's function. This allows us to incorporate electron correlation effect as well as phonon, impurity, and some other scattering effects into the theory in a coherent way. It is shown that the correlation effect, which has never been considered in the earlier theories, can be important under some conditions for the electron-hole-hole collision process. In contrast the effect is negligible for the electron-electron-hole collision process without any restrictions.