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    Anomalous disappearance of dark trions due to Auger recombination in hole-doped WSe2 monolayers

    Junghwan Kim1,*, Dinh Van Tuan1, Sébastien Roux2, Tilly Guyot2, Xavier Marie2,3, Cedric Robert2, and Hanan Dery1,4,†

    • *Contact author: jkim392@ur.rochester.edu
    • †Contact author: hanan.dery@rochester.edu

    Phys. Rev. B 114, 065406 – Published 7 July, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bknz-p7hq

    Abstract

    In photoluminescence experiments of hole-doped WSe2 monolayer, a counterintuitive phenomenon is observed: the emission from the lower-energy dark positive trion (D+) anomalously diminishes at high hole densities, while the signal from the higher-energy bright positive trion (X+) becomes dominant. In this work, we propose a nonradiative Auger recombination as the mechanism responsible for this paradoxical observation. We performed first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to obtain the electronic band structure and Bloch wave functions of WSe2 monolayer. To accurately capture the many-body correlation within the trion complex, we utilized the stochastic variational method (SVM). Using this combined framework, we have quantified the density-dependent Auger recombination rates by applying Fermi's golden rule. Our theoretical analysis reveals that as the hole density increases, the Auger recombination rate for dark trions increases dramatically. Specifically, at a critical hole density of a few times 1012cm−2, our calculations show that the Auger lifetime drops below the nanosecond-scale measured lifetime of the dark positive trion at residual hole density. This nonradiative Auger process becomes the dominant pathway, effectively quenching the emission from D+, and leading to the experimentally observed dominance of bright trions. This study provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the nonradiative interaction that governs trion dynamics in hole-doped WSe2 monolayer.

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