On the parabolicity of dipolar exciton traps and their population of excess charge carriers

Abstract

We study spatially trapped ensembles of dipolar excitons in coupled quantum wells by means of photoluminescence and photocurrent spectroscopy. The photogenerated excitons are confined in very clean GaAs double quantum well structures and electrostatically trapped by local gate electrodes. We find that the common approach of electrostatic trap geometries can give rise to an in-plane imbalance of charge carriers especially when an over-barrier excitation is utilized. The excess charge carriers can give rise to an effective parabolic confinement potential for the excitons. In photoluminescence spectra, we identify the emission of both neutral indirect excitons and states influenced by the excess charge carrier density. We find that the charge imbalance in the excitonic ensemble strongly influences the radiative lifetimes of both. Our findings shine a new light on the properties of trapped dipolar exciton ensembles. This is of significant relevance to common interpretations of experimental results in terms of signatures for the formation of ‘dark’ and ‘gray’ excitonic condensates.

Keywords

• excitons
• photoluminescence in III–V semiconductors
• quantum wells