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Spatially Resolved Thermodynamics of the Partially Ionized Exciton Gas in GaAs

Authors :
S. Bieker
Laurens W. Molenkamp
Tobias Kiessling
W. Ossau
T. Henn
Source :
Physical review letters. 114(22)
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

We report on the observation of macroscopic free exciton photoluminescence (PL) rings that appear in spatially resolved PL images obtained on a high purity GaAs sample. We demonstrate that a spatial temperature gradient in the photocarrier system, which is due to nonresonant optical excitation, locally modifies the population balance between free excitons and the uncorrelated electron-hole plasma described by the Saha equation and accounts for the experimentally observed nontrivial PL profiles. The exciton ring formation is a particularly instructive manifestation of the spatially dependent thermodynamics of a partially ionized exciton gas in a bulk semiconductor.

Details

ISSN :
10797114
Volume :
114
Issue :
22
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Physical review letters
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....e21a00a973b53a4f1e336aaceec1cd19