Abstract
The concept of dangling bond states is reviewed. It is shown that the Schottky barrier height can be correlated with the average self energy of surface dangling bonds. The same property holds true for band offsets at semiconductor heterojunctions. The model explains the relation found by Tersoff between these two quantities. A second part is devoted to the theoretical determination of surface recombination velocities. The Stevenson-Keyes model is shown to be able to provide recombination velocities of order 105 to 10 7 cm/s. Recent work on InP is discussed. Finally a semiclassical expression of the multiphonon capture cross sections is used, providing more information on the surface states which dominate recombination