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Physical Review Letters

Enhanced radiative recombination of free excitons in GaAs quantum wells

B. Deveaud, Fabrice Clérot, N. Roy, K. Satzke, B. Sermage, Douglas Scott Katzer

Published Oct 1, 1991• 372 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Radiative properties of free excitons in a single GaAs quantum well are studied under resonant excitation. Enhanced radiative recombination of the excitons, caused by the breakdown of the translational symmetry of the system, is evidenced by the very short lifetime as well as by the strong intensity of the signal. Dephasing mechanisms, by transferring the excitons to nonradiative states, increase the observed lifetime. We deduce a radiative lifetime of 10\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4 ps in the absence of dephasing mechanisms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.67.2355

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Radiative properties of free excitons in a single GaAs quantum well are studied under resonant excitation. Enhanced radiative recombination of the excitons, caused by the breakdown of the translational symmetry of the system, is evidenced by the very short lifetime as well as by the strong intensity of the signal. Dephasing mechanisms, by transferring the excitons to nonradiative states, increase the observed lifetime. We deduce a radiative lifetime of 10\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4 ps in the absence of dephasing mechanisms.
Rapid superradiant decay of coherently excited excitons in thin quantum wells (QWs) on a time scale of approximately 10 ps has been theoretically predicted by several groups [1], however, the experimental observation of this ultrafast radiative recombination is still the subject of controversial discussions. A recent theoretical paper [2] concludes, that this radiative decay rate should be strongly enhanced in multiple QW (MQW) Bragg structures due to radiative coupling of excitons excited in different wells via the exchange of transverse photons.
The theoretically predicted rapid superradiant decay of coherent 2D excitons on a time scale of approximately 10 ps [1] is expected to be strongly enhanced in multiple QW (MQW) Bragg structures consisting of N identical QWs separated by (Ga,Al)As barriers the thickness of which was adjusted so that the QWs had a distance d equal to one half of the heavy-hole exciton resonance wavelength λ in the medium [2]. This enhancement originates from efficient radiative coupling of excitons excited in different wells via the exchange of transverse photons. Recently we have published [3] degenerate-four-wave-mixing experiments with fs optical pulses on GaAs QW Bragg structures which demonstrate that the radiative lifetime in high-quality GaAs single QWs (SQW) is approximately 5 ps and decreases to less than 2 ps in Bragg samples with N=10. These studies revealed that radiative recombination provides the dominant contribution to the homogenous linewidth of the 2D exciton in high-quality samples and exceeds nonradiative contributions caused by scattering with sample imperfections in contrast to previous assumptions.
Resonant photoexcitation of a predominantly homogeneously broadened exciton line in a GaAs quantum well results in a nonexponential time-resolved photoluminescence decay transient due to the decrease in the exciton-exciton scattering contribution to the homogeneous linewidth, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\mathit{h}}$, as the exciton population decays. This result confirms the theoretically predicted relationship between the exciton radiative recombination lifetime and the homogenous linewidth (and coherence area) of the exciton state.
We report time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements of the radiative lifetime (τr) at 1.8K of resonantly excited heavy-hole excitons in a 27nm GaAs single quantum well as a function of exciton density. By the use of AlAs interface smoothing layers [1], the sample exhibits very little inhomogeneous broadening (≈0.15meV). The exciton centre of mass motion is therefore not significantly restricted by localisation in well width fluctuation islands. However, measurements of the exciton homogeneous linewidth (Γ h ) using time-resolved degenerate four wave mixing in the self-diffraction configuration (Fig.1) [2], additionally show that the sample imperfection scattering contribution to the Γ h of these delocalised excitons is also small (0.2meV). Thus, as indicated by the dependence of Γ h on exciton density (N x ), even at moderate exciton densities, exciton-exciton scattering is the dominant dephasing interaction within the photocreated exciton ensemble.
Photoluminescence spectra of interwell excitons in double GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (n-i-n structures) have been investigated (an interwell exciton in these systems is an electron-hole pair spatially separated by a narrow AlAs barrier). Under resonance excitation by circularly polarized light, the luminescence line of interwell excitons exhibits a significant narrowing and a drastic increase in the degree of circular polarization of photoluminescence with increasing exciton concentration. It is found that the radiative recombination rate significantly increases under these conditions. This phenomenon is observed at temperatures lower than the critical point and can be interpreted in terms of the collective behavior of interwell excitons.
The dynamics of biexciton radiative decay in semiconductor quantum wells is treated within the excitonic-molecule mode including super-radiance, exciton recoil, and nonzero photon momentum. For parameters describing GaAs/Alx{\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathit{x}}Alx​${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$As quantum wells, we find that the rate for the decay of the excitonic molecule (in the ground state of the relative motion between excitons) into an exciton and a photon is less than the decay rate characteristic of radiative free one-excitons.