Nonlinear behaviour of the resonance fluorescence from excitons in quantum wells

Abstract

We examine the resonance fluorescence from localized excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells with increasing excitation power and for different temperatures. Extending our experimental setup by a microscope objective with high numerical aperture in the cryostat, the detection of the emission from localized excitons is possible. We find a nonlinear behaviour of the emitted intensity with increasing laser power, which is explained as a transition of the emission from excitonic to electron-hole plasma states due to many-body effects between excited carriers. This is supported by our theoretical description based on the semiconductor Bloch equations. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.