High-resolution nonlinear laser spectroscopy of exciton relaxation in GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

This paper describes measurements of exciton relaxation in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structures based on high resolution nonlinear laser spectroscopy. The nonlinear optical measurements show that low energy excitons can be localized by monolayer disorder of the quantum well interface. We show that these excitons migrate between localization sites by phonon assisted migration, leading to spectral diffusion of the excitons. The frequency domain measurements give a direct measure of the quasi-equilibrium exciton spectral redistribution due to exciton energy relaxation, and the temperature dependence of the measured migration rates confirms recent theoretical predictions. The observed line shapes are interpreted based on solutions we obtain to modified Bloch equations which include the effects of spectral diffusion.