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Publication
Surface Science
Paper
Thermodynamics of excitons in coupled quantum wells
Abstract
Because of their long lifetime in coupled quantum wells under an applied electric field, excitons may he able to reach thermodynamic quasi-equilibrium. Here we measure photoluminescencc and photoluminescence excitation spectra from a symmetric coupled double quantum well. Analysis of the spectra shows that thermodynamic quasi-equilibrium is not achieved at temperatures below 6 K, where the excitons are trapped in a metastahle distribution. At higher temperatures, quasi-equilihrium is achieved. Because of strong repulsion between the excitons, the quasi-equilihrium distribution can he modeled with a Fermi-Dirac distribution. The model quantitatively explains the striking temperature dependence of the photoluminescence lincwidth which has been previously reported. © 1992.