CALCULATION OF THE AUGER LIFETIME OF DEGENERATE CARRIERS IN THE MANY-VALLEY NARROW GAP SEMICONDUCTORS

The Auger recombination rates and carrier lifetimes are calculated in the many-valley narrow-gap semiconductors such as PbTe, Pb1-xSnxTe, and Bi1-xSbx for the first time taking into account the carrier degeneracy and using the correct band spectrum model and the correct overlap integrals. The expression for the Auger rate is reduced to the 6-fold integral which is evaluated numerically. Using the obtained results the precision of the usual analytic Beattie-Landsberg method for the Auger lifetime calculations is evaluated. It is shown that the error of this method increases surprisingly rapidly when the temperature is raised. The error approaches 100% at temperature as low as εg/20. The numerically obtained lifetimes are almost an order of magnitude greater then those calculated previously. © 1990.