Enhancement of band-to-band Auger recombination by electron-hole correlations

A huge enhancement of band-to-band Auger recombination in semiconductors by electron-hole correlations is found from a quantitative calculation. In contrast to earlier attempts, our calculation of the Coulomb correlation factors is valid for all temperatures and carrier densities, including the high-temperature and low-density case. Our results nicely explain recent carrier-lifetime measurements on silicon and show that Coulomb-enhanced Auger recombination poses an intrinsic upper limit to the carrier lifetime even at room temparature, a factor of 30 lower than previously assumed.