Direct and spatially indirect excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices in strong magnetic fields

Luminescence and luminescence excitation spectra are used to study the energy spectrum and binding energies of direct and spatially indirect excitons in GaAs/AlaAs superlattices, with different widths of the electron and hole minibands, located in a high magnetic field perpendicular to the heterolayers. It is found that the ground state of the indirect excitons formed by electrons and holes and spatially separated between neighboring quantum wells lies between the ls ground state of the direct excitons and the continuum threshold for dissociated exciton states in the minibands. Indirect excitons in superlattices have a significant oscillator strength when the binding energy of the exciton exceeds the order of the width of the resulting miniband. The behavior of the binding energy of direct and indirect heavy hole excitons during changes in the tunneling coupling between the quantum wells is established. It is shown that a strong magnetic field, which intensifies the Coulomb interaction between the electron and hole in an exciton, weakens the bond in a system of symmetrically bound quantum wells. The spatially indirect excitons studied here are analogous to first order Wannier-Stark localized excitons in superlattices with inclined bands (when an electrical bias is applied), but in the present case the localization is of purely Coulomb origin. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1106–1118 (September 1997)     

Direct and spatially indirect excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices in strong magnetic fields

Luminescence and luminescence excitation spectra are used to study the energy spectrum and binding energies of direct and spatially indirect excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs superlattices having different electron and hole miniband widths in high magnetic fields perpendicular to the heterolayers. The ground state of the indirect excitons formed by electrons and holes which are spatially distributed among neighboring quantum wells is found to lie between the ground 1s state of the direct excitons and the threshold of the continuum of dissociated exciton states in the minibands. The indirect excitons have a substantial oscillator strength when the binding energy of the exciton exceeds the scale of the width of the resulting miniband. It is shown that a high magnetic field shifts a system of symmetrically bound quantum wells toward weaker bonding. At high exciton concentrations, spatially indirect excitons are converted into direct excitons through exciton-exciton collisions. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 833–836 (May 1998)     

Luminescence of excitons in slightly asymmetric double quantum wells

We report the first studies of exciton luminescence spectra from asymmetric double quantum wells (DQWs) of very similar width. The DQWs were of GaAs/AlGaAs and the differences in widths of the coupled wells were one or two monolayers. The coupled direct and indirect exciton states anticross with a resonance splitting of 1.33 meV. An additional luminescence line appearing at low temperatures is identified as a localized indirect exciton. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 735–739 (April 1997)     

Wilson chains are not thermal reservoirs

The effects of transverse electric field on the electronic structures, exciton states and excitonic absorption spectra in a cylindrical quantum wire are theoretically investigated in detail. The quantum wire is assumed to GaAs material surrounded by the infinite potential barrier. The results show that the external electric field removes the degeneracy of the electron or hole states. The energy levels of electron and hole, exciton binding energy, excitonic absorption coefficient and absorption energy decrease with increasing the strength of the electric field or the wire radius. The effects of the electric field become more significant for wide wires. The phenomena can be explained by the reduced spatial overlap of ground electron and hole states.     

An exciton in a quantum well in the presence of crossed electric and magnetic fields

An analytical approach to the problem of the Wannier–Mott exciton in a semiconductor quantum well (QW) in the presence of external magnetic and electric fields is developed. The magnetic field is taken to lie in the heteroplanes while the electric field is directed perpendicular to the heteroplanes. Explicit dependencies of the energy levels and wave-functions of the exciton on the magnitudes of the fields for a wide range of the width of the QW are obtained. For the narrow QW, the results are valid for arbitrary electron and hole effective masses. In the case of intermediate and wide QWs, the adiabatic approximation implying the extreme difference of the electron and hole masses is used. In the intermediate QW, the states of the relative motion are the standard Coulomb states affected by the external fields while the states of the centre of mass are the size-quantized states in the QW. We focus particularly on the delocalized states caused by the external electric field and the motion of the excitons centre of mass in the magnetic field. These states are localized far away from the Coulomb centre. A strong influence of the boundaries of the wide QW on the delocalized exciton states is found to occur. Estimates of the expected values are made using typical parameters associated with GaAs QW.     

Exciton binding energy and excitonic absorption spectra in a parabolic quantum wire under transverse electric field

The effects of transverse electric field on the energy levels of electron and heavy hole, exciton binding energy and excitonic absorption spectra of GaAs parabolic quantum wire are theoretically investigated in detail. The results indicate that the electron and hole energy levels, exciton binding energy, excitonic absorption coefficient and absorption energy becomes smaller with the increase of electric field. That is more significant at the condition of weaker parabolic confinement potential. The phenomena can be explained by the separation of overlap integral of the electron and hole at the ground states.     

Size-dependent photo-induced shift of the first exciton band in CdTe quantum dots in glass prepared by a two-stage heat-treatment process

CdTe nanocrystals were grown from commercially available RG850 Schott filter glass by two-step heat-treatment process which almost doubles the particle to matrix volume fraction. A calculation shows that a quantized-state effective mass model in the strong confinement regime might be used to deduce the average radius for the nanocrystals larger than 2 nm in radius from the energetic position of the first exciton peak in optical absorption spectrum. Size-induced shift of ∼360 meV in the first exciton peak position was observed. The steady state photoluminescence spectra exhibit a broad band red shifted relative to the first exciton band, which indicates the existence of shallow trap states. The non-linear optical properties of CdTe nanocrystals were studied by room temperature resonant photoabsorption spectroscopy. The differential absorption spectra had three-lobed structure whose size-dependent evolution was explained by bleaching of the absorption, red shift and broadening in the Gaussian absorption band used to fit the first exciton peak. A maximum red shift of 2.32 meV for the average nanocrystal radius of 4.65 nm was estimated by fitting the photomodulation spectra with a combination of first and second derivative Gaussian absorption bands. We presume that the red shift is induced by the electric field of trapped charges in surface states. Internal electric field strengths of 23 and 65 kV/cm were predicted for the average nanocrystal radii of 3.95 and 4.65 nm, respectively, with the help of second-order perturbation theory in the strong confinement limit.     

Exciton states in wurtzite InGaN/GaN quantum wells: Strong built-in electric field and interface optical-phonon effects

Considering the strong built-in electric field (BEF) effects and large exciton–phonon interactions, we investigate the exciton states confined in an InGaN/GaN single quantum well (QW) by using the Lee–Low–Pines variational method. We find that the exciton state modification caused by the exciton–phonon interactions is remarkable. The exciton energy shift due to exciton–phonon interactions increases monotonically if the well width increases. With increasing the In fraction, the exciton energy shift firstly increases to a maximum, then decreases. The BEF has a significant influence on the exciton states in a QW with large well width. The physical reasons have been analyzed in detail. Good agreement for the zero-phonon peak energies and the Huang–Rhys factor has been obtained between our numerical results and the corresponding experimental measurements.     

ZnCdTe-ZnTe多量子阱的电场效应

本文报导了电场作用下ZnCdTe-ZnTe多量子阱的激子发光特性.用激子局域化的观点解释了激子发光峰随电场增强而增强的现象.在Zn0.8Cd0.2Te-ZnTe多量子阱中观察到了电场作用下自由激子发光谱峰较大的红移和较快的发光淬灭     

Coulomb effects in spatially separated electron and hole layers in coupled quantum wells

We report on the (magneto-) optical study of many-body effects in spatially separated electron and hole layers in GaAs/Al_xGa_1?x As coupled quantum wells (CQWs) at low temperatures (T = 1.4 K) for a broad range of electron-hole (e-h) densities. Coulomb effects were found to result in an enhancement of the indirect (interwell) photoluminescence (PL) energy with increasing the e-h density both for a zero magnetic field and at high fields for all Landau level transitions; this is in contrast to the electron-hole systems in single QWs where the main features are explained by the band-gap renormalization resulting in a reduction of the PL energy. The observed enhancement of the ground state energy of the system of the spatially separated electron and hole layers with increasing the e-h density indicates that the real space condensation to droplets is energetically unfavorable. At high densities of separated electrons and holes, a new direct (intrawell) PL line has been observed: its relative intensity increased both in PL and in absorption (measured by indirect PL excitation) with increasing density; its energy separation from the direct exciton line fits well to the X ^? and X ⁺ binding energies previously measured in single QWs. The line is therefore attributed to direct multiparticle complexes.     

Staggered excitonic resonances of Stark-ladder transitions in an asymmetric double-well GaAs/AlAs superlattice

Excitonic effects on Stark-ladder transitions have been investigated experimentally and theoretically in a novel asymmetric double-well superlattice consisting of wide and narrow GaAs quantum wells separated by a constant AlAs barrier. In this superlattice strong electron resonance can occur under the applied electric field between the wide and narrow wells. It is found that due to existence of the two different heavy-hole localized states two types of excitonic resonances which are staggered in field are observed in the low-temperature photocurrent spectra. This field difference in the staggered exciton resonances is rigorously explained by variational calculations of the changes in the direct and indirect exciton binding energies with the field.     

Electronic structure of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum double rings in lateral electric field

A three-dimensional model of GaAs/A1GaAs quantum double rings in the lateral static electric field is investigated theoretically.The eigenvalue problem with the effective-mass approximation is solved by means of the finite-element method.The energy levels and wave functions of quantum-confined electrons and heavy holes are obtained and show an agreement with our previous theoretical and experimental studies.It is shown in the approximation of neglecting the Coulomb attraction between the electron and heavy hole that a relatively large Stark shift of exciton emission of 4 meV is attainable with an applied electric field of 0.7 kV/cm.     

Excitonic optical absorption in wurtzite InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Within the framework of the effective-mass and envelope function theory, exciton states and optical properties in wurtzite (WZ) InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) are investigated theoretically considering the built-in electric field effects. Numerical results show that the built-in electric field, well width and in composition have obvious influences on exciton states and optical properties in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs. The built-in electric field caused by polarizations leads to a remarkable reduction of the ground-state exciton binding energy, the interband transition energy and the integrated absorption probability in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs with any well width and In composition. In particular, the integrated absorption probability is zero in WZ InGaN/GaN QWs with any In composition and well width L > 4 nm. In addition, the competition effects between quantum confinement and the built-in electric field (between quantum size and the built-in electric field) on exciton states and optical properties have also been investigated.     

Exciton eigenstates and biexciton interaction energies in a spherical core/shell semiconductor hetero-nano structure

The exciton eigenstates and biexciton interaction energies in a spherical core–shell hetero-nano structure in the type II and the quasi-type II carrier localization regimes have been analyzed. For the analysis, we have evaluated the electron–hole overlap integral, the binding energy of exciton ground state, and the interaction energy of bi-exciton ground state in the structure. In the evaluation, the first order perturbation approach has been employed, where the direct Coulomb interaction energy, the surface polarization energy and the dielectric solvation energy are included. Our results show that the exciton eigenenergies and exciton–exciton interaction energy strongly depend on the choice of materials on which both the dielectric constants and the electron and hole effective masses rely.     

Sasers: resonant transitions in narrow-gap semiconductors and in exciton system in coupled quantum wells

Two schemes for steady stimulated phonon generation (saser, i.e., phonon laser) are proposed. The first scheme exploits a narrow-gap indirect semiconductor or analogous indirect gap semiconductor heterostructure where the tuning into resonance of one-phonon transition of electron–hole recombination can be carried out by external pressure, magnetic or electric fields. The second scheme uses one-phonon transition between direct and indirect exciton levels in coupled quantum wells. The tuning into the resonance of this transition can be accomplished by engineering of dispersion of indirect exciton by external in-plane magnetic and normal electric fields. In the second scheme the magnitude of phonon wave vector is determined by magnitude of in-plane magnetic field and, therefore, such a saser is tunable. Both schemes are analyzed and estimated numerically.     

Exciton and biexciton binding and vertical Stark effect in a model lens-shaped quantum box: Application to InAs/InP quantum dots

The problem of excitonic and biexcitonic binding is studied in the system of parabolic coordinates for a lens-shaped quantum box. The exciton wavefunction is expanded in terms of electron–hole configurations made from electron and hole single-particle states. Configuration interaction method and perturbative calculations are used to study the competition between confinement and correlation effects. Biexcitonic binding energy is calculated in the strong confinement regime and a comparison to the case of a spherical box is made. Absorption spectra with and without correlation effects are computed for InAs/InP quantum dots. Excitonic binding energy and enhancement factor are estimated to be equal to about 20 meV and 1.5, respectively. The excitonic absorption is finally studied in the presence of a uniform vertical electric field. A weak vertical Stark effect is predicted for lens-shaped quantum box described within this model.     

Spectrum of indirect magnetoexcitons in coupled quantum wells

The indirect Mott exciton (spatially-separated electron and hole) in coupled quantum wells in crossed electric and magnetic fields is discussed. The exciton spectrum is calculated for the case where the distance between the quantum wells of the electron and hole is larger than the exciton Bohr radius. The magnetoexciton creation probability is calculated and its dependence on the electric field is found. The absorption of electromagnetic radiation between the indirect magnetoexciton levels in coupled quantum wells is discussed. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 2220–2223 (December 1997)     

Anisotropic exciton Stark shift in hemispherical quantum dots

The exciton Stark shift and polarization in hemispherical quantum dots(HQDs) each as a function of strength and orientation of applied electric field are theoretically investigated by an exact diagonalization method. A highly anisotropic Stark redshift of exciton energy is found. As the electric field is rotated from Voigt to Faraday geometry, the redshift of exciton energy monotonically decreases. This is because the asymmetric geometric shape of the hemispherical quantum dot restrains the displacement of the wave function to the higher orbital state in response to electric field along Faraday geometry. A redshift of hole energy is found all the time while a transition of electron energy from this redshift to a blueshift is found as the field is rotated from Voigt to Faraday geometry. Taking advantage of the diminishing of Stark effect along Faraday geometry, the hemispherical shapes can be used to improve significantly the radiative recombination efficiency of the polar optoelectronic devices if the strong internal polarized electric field is along Faraday geometry.     

Raman spectroscopy of resonance exciton tunneling in GaAs/AlAs superlattices in electric fields

Optical-resonance-Raman scattering by acoustic phonons is used to study the effect of an electric field on the state of excitons in GaAs/AlAs superlattices. When the energy of the exciting photon coincides with the energy of an exciton bound to Wannier-Stark states of a heavy hole and electron with Δn=0,±1, the acoustic Raman scattering is enhanced. Oscillations in the intensity of the Raman spectrum in the electric field are explained by resonance delocalization of the exciton ground state as it interacts with Wannier-Stark states of neighboring quantum wells or with Wannier-Stark states of a higher electron miniband. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 827–829 (May 1998)