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arXiv:2610.13246

Theory of exciton-exciton interactions with nontrivial electronic bands

L. Maisel Licerán, H. T. C. Stoof

cond-mat.mes-hallcond-mat.mtrl-scicond-mat.quant-gascond-mat.str-elquant-phSubmitted Oct 9, 2026• Announced Oct 12, 2026• Revised Oct 17, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Oct 9, 2026v2 · Oct 17, 2026
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Abstract

Excitons are bound electron-hole pairs in semiconductors whose interactions influence optical properties and determine their collective behavior and emergent correlated phases. Despite the theoretical and experimental significance of these phenomena, a microscopic theory of exciton-exciton interactions that takes into account the full composite nature of these quasiparticles in systems with an arbitrary single-particle Hamiltonian is lacking. Here, we present a general theory of exciton-exciton interactions that builds upon our previous publication [Physical Review B 113, 155440 (2026)], which applied only to conventional semiconductors with weak band hybridization. By contrast, the theory presented here is valid in virtually any crystalline semiconducting system and can be applied to the study of biexciton formation and correlated excitonic phases in systems where band topology, quantum geometry, and moiré effects play a significant role. In addition to the analytical theory, we also present results in simple systems with flat bands with a nontrivial quantum metric and show that the biexcitonic spectrum differs strongly from that in the case without quantum geometry. Our theory paves the way for accurate quantitative calculations of biexciton spectra and excitonic many-body phases in modern condensed-matter systems.

Comments
19 pages, 8 figures

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Excitons are bound electron-hole pairs in semiconductors whose interactions influence optical properties and determine their collective behavior and emergent correlated phases. Despite the theoretical and experimental significance of these phenomena, a microscopic theory of exciton-exciton interactions that takes into account the full composite nature of these quasiparticles in systems with an arbitrary single-particle Hamiltonian is lacking. Here, we present a general theory of exciton-exciton interactions that builds upon our previous publication [Physical Review B 113, 155440 (2026)], which applied only to conventional semiconductors with weak band hybridization. By contrast, the theory presented here is valid in virtually any crystalline semiconducting system and can be applied to the study of biexciton formation and correlated excitonic phases in systems where band topology, quantum geometry, and moiré effects play a significant role. In addition to the analytical theory, we also present results in simple systems with flat bands with a nontrivial quantum metric and show that the biexcitonic spectrum differs strongly from that in the case without quantum geometry. Our theory paves the way for accurate quantitative calculations of biexciton spectra and excitonic many-body phases in modern condensed-matter systems.
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We study the optical properties of an electron–hole two-band Hubbard model with interactions of electron–electron (hole–hole) repulsion U and electron–hole attraction U '. In the case of two types of correlated insulators at half filling, viz. , the Mott–Hubbard type and the biexciton type, interband linear absorption/gain spectra including excitonic effects are calculated analytically using two-site dynamical mean-field theory and ladder approximation. We show that an exciton-like peak structure emerges because of an “exciton” in the sea of correlated fermions when U ' is larger than a certain critical value. The binding energy of the photoinduced excitonic bound state and the spectral intensity are evaluated as a function of U '. The emergence and absence of the exciton-like peak suggests that there are two different insulating mechanisms in the Mott–Hubbard insulating state of the electron–hole system: one is attributable to only U and the other is attributable to both U and U '; the latter is called the excitonic Mott–Hubbard insulating state. The intrinsic difference of the mechanisms cannot be captured from only single-particle properties such as the density of states, but it appears clearly in optical properties reflecting two-particle correlations.
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A microscopic many-body theory for the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors is reviewed with an emphasis on the role of correlation effects. At the semiclassical level, the semiconductor Bloch equations include many-body effects via bandgap and field renormalization as well as correlation contributions representing two electron-hole pair amplitudes, excitonic populations, and coupled interband and intraband coherences. These Coulomb interaction induced carrier correlations lead to characteristic signatures in nonlinear semiconductor spectroscopy. At the fully quantum mechanical level the dominant light-matter correlations are described by coupled semiconductor Bloch and luminescence equations. Excitonic emission properties of quantum well and microcavity systems are discussed, including effects such as coherent signatures in the secondary emission and coherent control of the emitted light.
Ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopy is used to study the coherent dynamics of optically excited electron-hole pairs in semiconductors. Coulomb interaction implies that the optical inter-band transitions are dominated, at least at low temperatures, by excitonic effects. They are further enhanced in quantum confined lower-dimensional systems, where exciton and biexciton effects dominate the spectra even at room temperature. The coherent dynamics of excitons are at modest densities well described by the optical Bloch equations and a number of the dynamical effects known from atomic and molecular systems are found and studied in the exciton-biexciton system of semiconductors. At densities where strong exciton interactions, or many-body effects, become dominant, the semiconductor Bloch equations present a more rigorous treatment of the phenomena. Ultrafast degenerate four-wave mixing is used as a tool to study the coherent exciton dynamics, and the importance of performing transform limited spectroscopy is demonstrated throughout.