A Simple Method for Calculating Exciton Binding Energies in Semiconductor Quantum wires

We present a simple, general method for calculating the binding energies of excitons in semiconductor quantum wires. The binding energy is given by an integral (over the electron and hole two-dimensional coordinates perpendicular to the wire) of a prescribed function weighted by the squares of the electron and hole subband envelope functions. Taking as an example, we calculate the binding energy of exciton in quantum wires assuming an infinite confining potential. This method should be applicable to a variety of more complex systems.