Photon emission induced by elastic exciton-carrier scattering in semiconductor quantum wells

Abstract

We present a study of the elastic exciton-electron (X-e−) and exciton-hole (X-h) scattering processes in semiconductor quantum wells, including fermion exchange effects. The balance between the exciton and the free carrier populations within the electron-hole plasma is discussed in terms of ionization degree in the nondegenerate regime. Assuming a two-dimensional Coulomb potential statically screened by the free carrier gas, we apply the variable phase method to obtain the excitonic wavefunctions, which we use to calculate the 1s exciton-free carrier matrix elements that describe the scattering of excitons into the light cone where they can radiatively recombine. The photon emission rates due to the carrierassisted exciton recombination in semiconductor quantum-wells (QWs) at room temperature and in a low density regime are obtained from Fermi’s golden rule, and studied for mid-gap and wide-gap materials. The quantitative comparison of the direct and exchange terms of the scattering matrix elements shows that fermion exchange is the dominant mechanism of the exciton-carrier scattering process. This is confirmed by our analysis of the rates of photon emission induced by electron-assisted and hole-assisted exciton recombinations.