Observation of large many-body Coulomb interaction effects in a doped quantum wire

Abstract

We demonstrate strong one-dimensional (1D) many-body interaction effects in photoluminescence (PL) in a GaAs single quantum wire of unprecedented optical quality, where 1D electron plasma densities are controlled via electrical gating. We observed PL of 1D charged excitons with large binding energy of 2.3 meV relative to the neutral excitons, and its evolution to a Fermi-edge singularity at high electron density. Furthermore, we find a strong band-gap renormalization in the 1D wire, or a large red-shift of PL with increased electron plasma density. Such a large PL red-shift is not observed when we create a high density neutral electron–hole plasma in the same wire, due probably to cancellation of the Coulomb interaction energy in the neutral plasma.