Resonant optical reflection from a GaN/(Al,Ga)N excitonic Bragg structure

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the formation of a superradiant optical mode in the room-temperature reflection spectra from a resonant Bragg structure composed of 30 equidistant GaN quantum wells separated by (Al,Ga)N barriers. The mode arises when the condition of the Bragg diffraction is fulfilled at the wavelength corresponding to the energy of the quasi-two-dimensional excitons in the quantum wells. It manifests itself as a significant increase in the amplitude and a change in the shape of the resonant optical reflection due to the electromagnetic coupling of the excitons. By modeling of the optical spectra, we evaluate the radiative and non-radiative broadening parameters of the excitonic states in the GaN quantum wells, which appear to be 0.4 ± 0.02 and 40 ± 5 meV, correspondingly, for the resonant exciton energy of 3.605 eV. The resonant Bragg structure based on the periodic sequence of the GaN quantum wells demonstrates an efficient coupling of photons and excitons at room temperature, which makes it promising for device applications.