WELL-WIDTH DEPENDENCE OF THE EXCITON LIFETIME IN GaAs/AlGaAs QUANTUM WELLS

The dependence of the excitonic lifetime on the well width has been studied in conventional GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. Two clearly different variations of the measured excitonic lifetime have been observed. For wide well widths, we find a nearly linear decrease of the lifetime with decreasing well width. However, when the well is further decreased, a saturation and even increase of the lifetime with decreeing well width are observed. The experimental data are compared with the theory of radiative excitonic recombination, and show that well width dependence of the measured photoluminescence lifetime can be attributed mainly to the change of the excitonic effective volume and the overlap integral as well.