Strong phonon-assisted Auger recombination in PbSe

It is commonly believed that direct Auger recombination dominates in narrow-gap semiconductors. With the example of the prototypical narrow-gap semiconductor PbSe, we demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case. By explicitly calculating both the direct and phonon-assisted indirect Auger recombination coefficients of PbSe from first principles, we show that a number of puzzling anomalies in the Auger recombination in PbSe can be well understood. These insights shed new light on the impact of electron-phonon coupling on Auger recombination in IV-VI semiconductors, which is critical for improved device design.