Binding Energy and Lifetime of Excitons in InxGa1-xAs/GaAs Quantum Wells

We report a systematic study of exciton binding energies and lifetimes in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells. The experimental binding energies have been deduced from photoluminescence excitation measurements taking into account the contribution of the 2s state of the exciton and the line broadening. The experimental results have been compared with accurate calculations in a four-band model, where exciton energies take into account the polaron correction.

The theory accounts for all the experimental observations and provides a good quantitative agreement with the experimental values.