Steady-State Recombination Rates at a Given Plane

STEADY-STATE RECOMBINATION RATES AT A GIVEN PLANE X 

Consider a non-degenerate semiconductor containing recombination centres of one type, each of which can trap only one electron. We shall consider the types of transition shown in Fig.6.1. If forward and reverse processes were counted separately, there would be eighteen processes. With the notation of the figure and by means of the mass-action laws, the transition rates per unit volume may be determined for any given plane x as follows  

The processes in Fig. 6.1 have been arranged to show how Auger processes can compete with single-electron processes (for example with single-electron radiative processes). The trapping processes are analogous for donors and acceptors, which are shown separately. 

Summation of the rates (6.1) yields, for the total unavoidable recombination rate per unit volume. 

Similarly, the total electron-trapping rate and the hole-trapping rate per unit volume are, by (6.4) 

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