Center-of-mass and internal motion of excitons in quantum wires

Abstract

The properties of excitons, which are optically excited in single or coupled quantum wires, are studied within the effective-mass approximation. The two-particle wave functions and energies obey a Schrödinger equation with screened Coulomb interaction of electron and hole and their corresponding wire confinement potentials. This equation is approximately separated into an equation for the center-of-mass motion and another one more or less for the internal motion of the electron hole pairs. This allows a representation of absorption and luminescence spectra near a quantum-well exciton transition by a generalized Elliott formula.