Microscopic Theory of Auger Recombination
in Quantum Wires

E. B. Dogonkin*, G. G. Zegrya**, and A. S. Polkovnikov***

Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia

*e-mail: eugen@theory.ioffe.rssi.ru

**e-mail: zegrya@theory.ioffe.rssi.ru

***e-mail: tol@theory.ioffe.rssi.ru

Received July 27, 1999

Abstract—An analysis is made of mechanisms for Auger recombination of nonequilibrium carriers in cylin-
drical quantum wires. It is shown that two different Auger recombination mechanisms take place in these wires:
a quasi-threshold and a nonthreshold mechanism. Both mechanisms are associated with the presence of hetero-
barriers but are of a different nature. The quasi-threshold mechanism is attributed to the spatial confinement of
the carrier wave functions to the region of the quantum wire and in this case the quasi-momentum conservation
law is violated and the Auger recombination process is intensified. As the radius of the wire increases, the quasi-
threshold Auger recombination process goes over to a threshold process. The nonthreshold mechanism is
caused by the scattering of an electron (hole) at the heterojunction; the rate of this nonthreshold Auger recom-
bination tends to zero in the limit of an infinite-radius wire. © 2000 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”.

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