Free Carrier Auger–Meitner Recombination in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Microscopic many-body models based on inputs from first-principles density functional theory are used to calculate the carrier losses due to free carrier Auger–Meitner recombination (AMR) processes in Mo- and W-based monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides as a function of the carrier density, temperature, and dielectric environment. Despite the exceptional strength of Coulomb interaction in the two-dimensional materials, the AMR losses are found to be similar in magnitude to those in conventional III–V-based quantum wells for the same wavelengths. Unlike the case in III–V materials, the losses show nontrivial density dependencies due to the fact that bandgap renormalizations on the order of hundreds of millielectronvolts can bring higher bands into or out of resonance with the optimal energy level for the AMR transition, approximately one bandgap from the lowest band. Similar nontrivial behaviors are found for the dependencies of AMR on the temperature and dielectric screening.