Relaxation of polarized excitons in asymmetric double quantum wells

Abstract

We consider the intrawell and interwell relaxation of circularly polarized excitons in an asymmetric double-quantum-well structure. For the intrawell case (photocreated light excitons coupled to the detected heavy excitons by an optical-phonon emission) the polarization changes sign after a fast relaxation. For the interwell case (transfer of polarization from the ground heavy exciton of the narrow well towards the ground heavy exciton of the wide well) we observe that the initial polarization is recovered after energy relaxation only if a fast-relaxation path is available which involves only intermediate heavy exciton states.