Abstract

Although much theoretical interest has recently been focused on the role of Auger processes in determining the quantum efficiency of semiconductor lasers, the manner in which free carrier screening influences the Auger transition rate has in general not been properly understood. Recently, however, we performed a careful analysis of these effects. In particular, we first demonstrated, using a generalized nonequilibrium Feynman diagram formalism invented by Keldysh, Kadanoff, Baym, and Langreth (KKBL) that the Coulomb interaction between carriers should be screened by the momentum and energy-dependent dielectric function ϵ(q, ω), and not by the static dielectric function, as has been assumed by most previous authors. We then applied these results to calculate the Auger transition rate in p-doped GaSb and highly excited InGaAsP.

© 1987 Optical Society of America