Eur. Phys. J. D 36, 143-157 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00217-3

Microscopic theory of optical excitations, photoluminescence, and terahertz response in semiconductors

Fachbereich Physik und Wissenschaftliches Zentrum für Materialwissenschaften, Philipps Universität, Renthof 5, 35032 Marburg, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a stephan.w.koch@physik.uni-marburg.de

Received: 15 April 2005
Revised: 9 June 2005
Published online: 9 August 2005

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive many-body theory for optically excited semiconductors. The coupled equations of motion for the correlation functions of the Coulomb-interacting electron-hole system are derived and solved for different excitation conditions. The generation of a coherent excitonic polarization and its conversion into incoherent populations is analyzed. The spontaneous emission properties of the excited system are evaluated using a fully quantized theory. Luminescence from excitonic and electron-hole plasma populations is computed, and significant hole burning in the exciton center of mass distributions is predicted. It is shown how different excitations states of the many-body system can be identified by their characteristic signatures in the absorption spectra of a terahertz probe field.