Auger recombination rates in nitrides from first principles

We report Auger recombination rates for wurtzite InGaN calculated from first principles density-functional and many-body-perturbation theory. Two different mechanisms are examined – inter- and intra-band recombination – that affect different parts of the emission spectrum. In the blue to green spectral region and at room temperature the Auger coefficient can be as large as 2x10^-30cm^6s^-1; in the infrared even larger. Since Auger recombination scales with the cubic power of the free-carrier concentration it becomes an important non-radiative loss mechanism at high current densities. Our results indicate that Auger recombination may be responsible for the loss of quantum efficiency that affects InGaN-based light emitters.