The Auger recombination coefficient has been determined from the decay kinetics of highly excited silicon. It was found to be proportional to T0.6, increasing from 3.0×10−31 to 4.6×10−31 cm6s−1 in the temperature interval 195–372 K.

Electron–hole pairs in semiconductors may recombine through an Auger process. The theory for this process was worked out by Beattie and Landsberg, for a semiconductor with a simple and direct band structure. They found that the conservation laws for energy and crystal momentum lead to a threshold energy for this type of recombination. In the present paper it is shown that an Auger process may equally well take place in an indirect gap semiconductor, without participation of phonons, and that the activation energy, depending on the band structure, may be very low and even accidentally zero. A survey of available band data for silicon and germanium shows that for both these materials the band structure is favourable for an Auger process with low threshold energy. A perturbational approach is applied for calculating the transition rates for silicon and germanium. The results are compared with recent experimental data.

The rate for electron‐hole hole Auger recombination in germanium has been recalculated by taking into account the detailed band structure including valence band splitting, nonparabolicity of the valence bands, and the influence of Γ‐point conduction band minimum. The transition matrix elements were calculated with the aid of the k · p approximation method, using optical data obtained from the fundamental direct absorption and from the inter‐valence band absorption. The value obtained for the recombination coefficient is too low to be able to explain reported low‐temperature lifetimes of heavily doped p‐type germanium and suggests that a phonon‐assisted transition should be the dominant process.

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The rate of phonon-assisted electron-hole-hole Auger recoinbination in germanium is calculated using second-order perturbation theory and optical absorption data. By this semi-empirical approach, a difficuhy inherent in the perturbat.ion theory is evaded. The result indicates that the phonon-assisted Auger process which is nearly. temperatureindependent, competes successfully with the phonon-less Auger process a t about room temperature and will predominate at, lower temperatures. Since the theoretical basis has recently been called in question, the absolute value is uncert,ain, but is nevertheless compatible with the experimental resu1t.s. Die Geschwindigkeit der phononbegleiteten Elektron-Loch-Loch-Auger-Rekombinationin Germanium wurde mit Hilfe der Storungstheorie zweiter Ordnung und von Daten fur die optische Absorption bereohnet,. Mit dieser halbempirischen Methode wird eine Schwierigkeit umgangen, die der Storungstheorie eigen ist. Das Ergebnis zeigt, daB der phononbegleitete Auger-ProzeB, der von der Temperstor nahezu unabhangig ist, bei Zimmertemperatnr mit dem phononlosen Auger-ProzeB konkiirrieren kann und bei niedrigerer Temperatur vorherrscht. Weil die theoretischen Grundlagen kiirzlich angezweifelt wurden, ist der absolute Wert nnsicher, aber trotzdem mit den experimentellen Ergebnissen vertraglich.