The experimentally observed dependence of effective surface recombination velocitySeffat the Si‐SiO2interface on light‐induced minority carrier excess concentration is compared with theoretical predictions of an ‘‘extended Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) formalism.’’ The calculations of SRH‐recombination rates at the Si‐SiO2interface are based on the theory of a surface space charge layer under nonequilibrium conditions and take into account the impact of illumination level, gate metal work function, fixed oxide charge density, and the energy dependence of capture cross sections &sgr;n, &sgr;pand interface state densityDit. Applying this theory top‐type silicon surfaces covered by high quality thermal oxides, the experimentally observed strong increase ofSeffwith decreasing minority carrier excess concentration could quantitatively be attributed to the combined effect of the &sgr;n/&sgr;pratio of about 1000 at midgap and the presence of a positive fixed oxide charge densityQfof about 1×1011charges/cm2. Due to the favorable work function of aluminum, surface recombination velocities below 1 cm/s can be obtained at Al‐covered Si‐SiO2interfaces for minority carrier densities above 1013cm−3.