Abstract
Circularly polarized excitation light from a tunable Ti-doped sapphire laser has been used to produce spin-polarized excitons in strained, pseudomorphic In0.16Ga0.84As/Al0.29Ga0.71As quantum wells (QWs) grown on GaAs substrates. By analyzing the degree of circular polarization of the exciton luminescence and by studying the depolarization effect of a transverse magnetic field, the optical lifetime and the spin-relaxation time of excited carriers can be determined in relatively wide wells. We further show that circular excitation offers a relatively simple means to discriminate unambiguously between light- and heavy-hole excitons. We have thus made measurements that yield optically determined band offsets for the QW system under investigation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 11151-11155 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 19 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1992 |
| Externally published | Yes |