Nonradiative recombination via deep impurity levels in semiconductors: The excitonic Auger mechanism

We present a theoretical investigation of excitonic Auger recombination via deep impurity levels in semiconductors. A calculation of the transition matrix elements is carried out for several levels of approximation. The influence of carrier density and temperature is studied by taking into account the screening of the Coulomb interaction at high carrier densities and the thermal ionization of the excitons. The results of our calculations are then compared to our experimental results, which originally led to the development of our model of excitonic Auger recombination via deep impurities.