Nonequilibrium Green's function theory of coherent excitonic effects in the photocurrent response of semiconductor nanostructures

Abstract

Excitonic contributions to absorption and photocurrent generation in semiconductor nanostructures are described theoretically and simulated numerically using steady-state non-equilibrium Green's function theory. In a first approach, the coherent interband polarization including Coulomb corrections is determined from a Bethe-Salpeter-type equation for the equal time interband single-particle charge carrier Green's function. The effects of excitonic absorption on photocurrent generation are considered on the same level of approximation via the derivation of the corresponding corrections to the electron-photon self-energy.