Three-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of excitons in asymmetric double quantum wells

Abstract

We utilize a three-dimensional (3D) visible spectroscopy to reveal and explore coherent coupling between excitons localized to GaAs quantum wells separated by barriers 4 and 6 nm wide. The coupled excitons were energetically separated by 43 meV, close to the longitudinal optical phonon energy, due to the different widths of the quantum wells to which they were localized. The ability to isolate coherence pathways in 3D spectroscopy has made it possible to not only identify weak coherent coupling, but also to explore the nature of the coupling through analysis of the peak shapes. This peak shape analysis showed inhomogeneous broadening of the excitons localized to different wells to be uncorrelated, as expected, while coupling between heavy-hole and light-hole excitons localized to the same well was shown to be correlated. To gain some insight into the coupling mechanism we explored the dependence of the coupling strength on the barrier width and hence spatial separation. Based on these results we discuss the possibility of phonon-assisted dipole coupling.