Observation of collective excitations in MgZnO/ZnO two-dimensional electron systems by resonant Raman scattering

Abstract

The neutral excitations in two-dimensional electron systems (2DES) confined at ${\mathrm{Mg}}_{x}{\mathrm{Zn}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{O}/\text{ZnO}$ heterojunctions were studied by a resonant inelastic light scattering (ILS) technique. At zero magnetic field the ILS spectra of intra- and intersubband collective excitations are detected in the wavelength range close to the ZnO direct band gap. The intersubband spectrum is represented by collective modes of charge- and spin-density excitations along with single-particle excitation continuum. The energies of these excitations were characterized on the series of samples and shown to grow sublinearly with the two-dimensional electron density. The intrasubband 2D plasmon was observed at plasma frequency and its square-root momentum dispersion was ascertained. Strong electron-electron correlations are manifested in the energy structure of intersubband excitations. Depolarization and excitonic contributions to the charge- and spin-density excitation energies are extracted in the wide range of 2D-electron densities. The negative excitonic contribution dominates among the many-particle energy terms and results in an unusual hierarchy of 2DES intersubband collective excitation energies.