DIRECT AUGER RECOMBINATION IN DEGENERATE DIRECT GAP SEMICONDUCTORS

We show that the density dependence of the Auger lifetime differs from the usual Cn** minus **2 law when a direct process (without phonons) takes place in a degenerate electron-hole plasma with one parabolic conduction band and one parabolic valence band. The lifetime roughly increases by a factor 20 when the plasma Fermi energy E//F approx. n**2**/**3 goes from the band gap E//G to the threshold E//0 (approx. E//G/6) of this direct process, while, close to threshold, it behaves like (E//F minus E//0)** minus **4.