The quantum efficiency of AlGaN ultraviolet light-emitting diodes declines (droops) at increasing operating powers due to Auger–Meitner recombination (AMR). Using first-principles density-functional theory, we show that indirect AMR mediated by electron–phonon coupling and alloy disorder can induce bulk C coefficients as large as 10 31 cm6/s. Furthermore, we find that the confinement of carriers by polarization fields within quantum wells severely relaxes crystal-momentum conservation, which exacerbates the rate of AMR over radiative recombination by an order of magnitude relative to the bulk. This results in a striking decrease in quantum efficiency at high power. Suppressing polarization fields and jointly increasing the well width would greatly mitigate AMR and efficiency droop.

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