Complexity of the dipolar exciton Mott transition in GaN/(AlGa)N nanostructures

Abstract

The Mott transition from a dipolar excitonic to an electron-hole plasma state is demonstrated in a wide GaN/(Al,Ga)N quantum well at T=7 K by means of spatially resolved magnetophotoluminescence spectroscopy. Increasing optical excitation density, we drive the system from the excitonic state, characterized by a diamagnetic behavior and thus a quadratic energy dependence on the magnetic field, to the unbound electron-hole state, characterized by a linear shift of the emission energy with the magnetic field. The complexity of the system requires taking into account both the density dependence of the exciton binding energy and the exciton-exciton interaction and correlation energy that are of the same order of magnitude. We estimate the carrier density at Mott transition as nMott≈2×1011 cm-2 and address the role played by excitonic correlations in this process. Our results strongly rely on the spatial resolution of the photoluminescence and the assessment of the carrier transport. We show that in contrast to GaAs/(Al,Ga)As systems, where transport of dipolar magnetoexcitons is strongly quenched by the magnetic field due to exciton mass enhancement, in GaN/(Al,Ga)N the band parameters are such that the transport is preserved up to 9 T.