Theoretical Study of Minority Carrier Lifetimes due to Auger Recombination in n-type Silicon

The Auger recombination rate and minority carrier lifetime due to electron-electron-hole (eeh) Auger transition are calculated in the range ofn=1×1018/ cm3–1×1020/ cm3. Both matrix elements and overlap integrals used for the calculation of Auger recombination are derived from the first principle theory. We have also analyzed the influence of the degenerate effect and screening effect on the Auger recombination rate. The calculated results reveal that the screening effect is negligible, but the degenerate effect is not. Since the minority carrier lifetimes calculated in the model are in good agreement with experimental lifetimes for theeehAuger process, nonphonon recombination, instead of a phonon-assisted process, is the key process foreehAuger recombination. The derived Auger coefficients are also in good agreement with experimental values and other theoretical calculations.