Auger recombination in strained quantum wells

A nonthreshold mechanism for Auger recombination of nonequilibrium carriers in quantum wells with strained layers is investigated theoretically. It is shown that the dependence of the Auger recombination rate on the magnitude of the strain and the height of the heterobarriers for electrons and holes can be analyzed only by calculating the overlap integrals between initial and final particle states microscopically. In quantum wells with strained layers the presence of strain affects qualitatively and quantitatively the electron-hole overlap integral. The dependence of the Auger recombination rate on the quantum well parameters, the magnitude of the stress, and temperature are analyzed for heterostructures based on InGaAsP/InP and InGaAlAs/InP.