Modeling of Recombination in HgCdTe

Minority carrier recombination lifetime calculations for narrow-gap semicon-ductors are of direct practical interest in establishing whether a material!s recombination is extrinsically or intrinsically limited, and therefore in guiding research and development programs regarding material quality improve-ments. We describe efforts to obtain accurate electronic band structures of HgCdTe alloy-based materials with infrared energy gaps and employ them to evaluate Auger recombination lifetimes. We use a 14-band k Æ p formalism to compute and optimize electronic band structures, and use the obtained elec-tronic energies and matrix elements directly in the numerical evaluation of Auger and radiative lifetimes. Key words: HgCdTe, recombination, electronic structur