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Excitonic Effects, Luminescence, and Lasing in Semiconductor Microcavities
Author(s) -
Khitrova G.,
Wick D. V.,
Berger J. D.,
Ell C.,
Prineas J. P.,
Nelson T. R.,
Lyngnes O.,
Gibbs H. M.,
Kira M.,
Jahnke F.,
Koch S. W.,
Rühle W.,
Hallstein S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-3951(199803)206:1<3::aid-pssb3>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - lasing threshold , laser linewidth , exciton , photoluminescence , condensed matter physics , semiconductor , resonance (particle physics) , quantum well , biexciton , luminescence , spontaneous emission , physics , materials science , atomic physics , molecular physics , optoelectronics , optics , laser , wavelength
Semiconductor microcavities containing one or more narrow‐linewidth quantum wells exhibit two transmission peaks when the exciton and cavity are in resonance. It will be shown that the transmission and photoluminescence properties of this system are very sensitive to excitonic optical nonlinearities such as exciton broadening, bandgap renormalization, and state filling. When the cavity mode is detuned to energies above the exciton, at low densities the emission from the lower branch is much larger than that from the upper branch. But as the density is increased the lower emission saturates and the upper emission grows rapidly, lasing at a density less than a factor of two above crossover. It will be shown that this striking crossover is not “boser action” due to a condensation into the upper branch as suggested by [1,2]. Rather it results from the density dependence of the transmission and carrier distribution functions as shown by the good agreement with a fully quantum mechanical microscopic theory for the luminescence from a microcavity.