A suppression mechanism of Auger recombination effects in strained quantum wells induced by local negative curvature of the energy band structure

An analytical method has been developed to calculate distribution of carriers that undergo CHHS Auger recombinations in semiconductors. From this approach, it is further discovered that holes with a local negative effective mass are, statistically, not favored in the CHHS Auger recombination process. As extended regions in valence subbands of compressively strained quantum well structures possess a negative curvature-and thus a local negative hole effective mass-this mechanism is identified to be a significant factor that suppresses Auger recombination effects in compressively strained quantum well laser diodes. This suppression mechanism is also observed and confirmed by recent Monte Carlo calculation results.>