Systematic investigation of effects of exciton–acoustic-phonon scattering on photoluminescence rise times of free excitons in GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As single quantum wells

Abstract

We have systematically investigated the photoluminescence (PL) dynamics of free excitons in GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As single quantum wells, focusing on the energy relaxation process due to exciton–acoustic-phonon scattering under non-resonant and weak excitation conditions as a function of GaAs-layer thickness from 3.6 to 12.0 nm and temperature from 30 to 50 K. The free exciton characteristics were confirmed by observation that the PL decay time has a linear dependence with temperature. We found that the free exciton PL rise rate, which is the reciprocal of the rise time, is inversely linear with the GaAs-layer thickness and linear with temperature. This is consistent with a reported theoretical study of the exciton–acoustic-phonon scattering rate in the energy relaxation process in quantum wells. Consequently, it is conclusively verified that the PL rise rate is dominated by the exciton–acoustic-phonon scattering rate. In addition, from quantitative analysis of the GaAs-layer thickness and temperature dependences, we suggest that the PL rise rate reflects the number of exciton–acoustic-phonon scattering events.