Theory of Interband Auger Recombination inn-type Silicon

Available theories find pure (electronic) interband Auger lifetimes in n-type Si that are significantly larger than experimental values. Theories that include phonon-assisted processes find lifetimes that are still too large. Close examination of these theories, however, reveals that potentially compromising approximations were invoked. Here we report calculations whose accuracy is tested with respect to all relevant parameters, and we find pure Auger lifetimes in very good agreement with experiment over a wide range of temperatures. Thus the experimental results can be accounted for without the invoking of phonon-assisted recombination.