Exciton binding energy in GaAs quantum wells deduced from magneto-optical absorption measurement

Magneto-optical absorption spectra due to exciton states and Landau-levels were measured in GaAs/AlAs multi-quantum-wells. By extrapolating the photon energies of the absorption peaks to zero magnetic field, the lowest state (1S) heavy hole exciton binding energy, E^B_$\text{h}$(1S), was obtained as a function of well size L_z in the range $\text{58}\text{A}\text{?}\text{?}\text{L}{}_{\mathrm{z}}\text{?252}\text{A}\text{?}$. The L_z dependence of E^B_h showed the change of the exciton character from three-dimensional to two-dimensional with decreasing L_z. The diamagnetic shift observed for the heavy hole exciton peak was larger than that for the light hole exciton peak, showing the anisotropic nature of the Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian. The diamagnetic shift of the heavy hole exciton peak became smaller as L_z was decreased, suggesting the enhancement of the two-dimensional exciton character.