Abstract

The lead salts are widely used in mid-infrared optoelectronic devices. A particular feature of this system - i.e. their near “mirror” conduction and valence bands - has been cited as potentially leading to much smaller Auger scattering rates than found in III-V and II-VI material systems. However, theory predicts that there may nevertheless still remain a substantial contribution to this unwanted recombination process through inter-valley scattering [1,2]. Understanding accurately how the recombination processes change with carrier density is important for emission devices which operate far from equilibrium, and in particular in the continuing quest for the development of compact room temperature lasers. Although considerable research has been done on the recombination processes, with the exception of one report [2] almost all previous work has utilised relatively long pulse or cw radiation.

© 1998 IEEE