Phonon-assisted Auger-Meitner Recombination in Silicon from First Principles

Abstract

We present a consistent first-principles methodology to study both direct and phonon-assisted Auger-Meitner recombination (AMR) in indirect-gap semiconductors that we apply to investigate the microscopic origin of AMR processes in silicon. Our results are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements and show that phonon-assisted contributions dominate the recombination rate in both n-type and p-type silicon, demonstrating the critical role of phonons in enabling AMR. We also decompose the overall rates into contributions from specific phonons and electronic valleys to further elucidate the microscopic origins of AMR. Our results highlight potential pathways to modify the AMR rate in silicon via strain engineering.

Version accepted for publication, includes main text and supplemental material

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO
• Wannier90 as a community code: new features and applications
• Route to high hole mobility in GaN via reversal of crystal-field splitting

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The Wannier Function Software Ecosystem for Materials Simulations
• Carrier confinement and alloy disorder exacerbate Auger-Meitner recombination in AlGaN ultraviolet light-emitting diodes
• Phonon-assisted Auger decay of excitons in doped transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers
• Strain Effects on Auger-Meitner Recombination in Silicon