1 research outputs found
Quantum Monte Carlo treatment of elastic exciton-exciton scattering
We calculate cross sections for low energy elastic exciton-exciton scattering
within the effective mass approximation. Unlike previous theoretical
approaches, we give a complete, non-perturbative treatment of the four-particle
scattering problem. Diffusion Monte Carlo is used to calculate the essentially
exact energies of scattering states, from which phase shifts are determined.
For the case of equal-mass electrons and holes, which is equivalent to
positronium-positronium scattering, we find a_s = 2.1 a_x for scattering of
singlet-excitons and a_s= 1.5 a_x for triplet-excitons, where a_x is the
excitonic radius. The spin dependence of the cross sections arises from the
spatial exchange symmetry of the scattering wavefunctions. A significant
triplet-triplet to singlet-singlet scattering process is found, which is
similar to reported effects in recent experiments and theory for excitons in
quantum wells. We also show that the scattering length can change sign and
diverge for some values of the mass ratio m_h/m_e, an effect not seen in
previous perturbative treatments.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Revision has updated figures, improved paper
structure, some minor correction