Auger recombination in semiconductor quantum wells in a magnetic field - art. no. 075317

Auger process involving two electrons from the conduction band and a heavy hole from the valence band in semiconductor heterostructures with quantum w ells is investigated for the case of a magnetic field applied normal to het eroboundaries. It is shown that there exist three different mechanisms of A uger recombination, associated with (I) electron scattering at interface wi th transition into the continuous spectrum, (II) short-range Coulomb intera ction in the quantum well with transition into the continuous spectrum, and (III) resonance transition into the discrete spectrum. All these processes are thresholdless. The Auger recombination coefficients analytically calcu lated for the processes I, II, and III show different dependencies on tempe rature, magnetic field, and quantum well parameters. in the limit of an inf initely wide quantum well, processes I and II merge to form a bulk threshol d Auger process, while process III remains thresholdless resonance one. In the limit of infinitely weak magnetic field, process I remains thresholdles s, process II becomes a quasithreshold process (i.e., its threshold energy slightly depends on temperature), and process III transforms into a nonreso nance process with a threshold. The results obtained are new and have no an alogies in the literature.