Illustration from Scientific Research

Impact ionization (left) can be thought of as the inverse of Auger recombination (right); GS is the ground state, and X and X* are the band-edge and the hot-exciton states, respectively. During Auger recombination, the energy of one exciton is transferred to the other, which leads to the formation of a hot-exciton state (right). In the course of impact ionization, a hot exciton loses its kinetic energy by creating a new exciton (left).

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