Auger Recombination in Quantum Well Laser with Participation of Electrons in Waveguide Region

Abstract

A new mechanism of nonradiative recombination of nonequilibrium carriers in semiconductor quantum wells is suggested and discussed. For a studied Auger recombination process the energy of localized electron-hole pair is transferred to barrier carriers due to Coulomb interaction. The analysis of the rate and the coefficient of this process is carried out. It is shown, that there exists two processes of thresholdless and quasithreshold types, and thresholdless one is dominant. The coefficient of studied process is a non-monotonous function of quantum well width having maximum in region of narrow quantum wells. Comparison of this process with CHCC process shows that these two processes of nonradiative recombination are competing in narrow quantum wells, but prevail at different quantum well widths.