Abstract

In quantum well heterostructures optically excited carriers loose their excess energy via different scattering processes (including the capture from the barrier into the quantum well at non-resonant excitation as well as interband and intraband relaxation in the well) and reach the ground state of the structure, i. e. the first electron and heavy hole subbands in the well. At low bath temperatures, mainly radiative recombination via electron-hole pairs, free or bound excitons depending on the sample parameters and the carrier density is observed. The decay time measured in time resolved experiments is commonly related to the radiative recombination lifetime.

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