Numerical simulation of exciton dynamics in cuprous oxide at ultra low temperatures

This thesis is a theoretical investigation of the relaxation behaviour of excitons in Cuprous Oxide at ultra low temperatures when the excitons are confined within a potential trap and also in a homogeneous system. Under the action of deformation potential phonon scattering only, Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC) occurs for all temperatures in the investigated range. In the case of Auger decay, we do not find at any temperature a BEC due to the heating of the exciton gas. In the case of elastic and phonon-scattering together BEC occurs in this case of 0.1 K

Numerical simulation of exciton dynamics in Cu2O at ultra low temperatures within a potential trap

We have studied theoretically the relaxation behaviour of excitons in cuprous oxide (Cu2O) at ultra low temperatures when excitons are confined within a potential trap by solving numerically the Boltzmann equation. As relaxation processes, we have included in this paper deformation potential phonon scattering, radiative and non-radiative decay and Auger decay. The relaxation kinetics has been analysed for temperatures in the range between 0.3K and 5K. Under the action of deformation potential phonon scattering only, we find for temperatures above 0.5K that the excitons reach local equilibrium with the lattice i.e. that the effective local temperature is coming down to bath temperature, while below 0.5K a non-thermal energy distribution remains. Interestingly, for all temperatures the global spatial distribution of excitons does not reach the equilibrium distribution, but stays at a much higher effective temperature. If we include further a finite lifetime of the excitons and the two-particle Auger decay, we find that both the local and the global effective temperature are not coming down to bath temperature. In the first case we find a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) to occur for all temperatures in the investigated range. Comparing our results with the thermal equilibrium case, we find that BEC occurs for a significantly higher number of excitons in the trap. This effect could be related to the higher global temperature, which requires an increased number of excitons within the trap to observe the BEC. In case of Auger decay, we do not find at any temperature a BEC due to the heating of the exciton gas

Condensation of Excitons in Cu2O at Ultracold Temperatures: Experiment and Theory

We present experiments on the luminescence of excitons confined in a potential trap at milli-Kelvin bath temperatures under cw-excitation. They reveal several distinct features like a kink in the dependence of the total integrated luminescence intensity on excitation laser power and a bimodal distribution of the spatially resolved luminescence. Furthermore, we discuss the present state of the theoretical description of Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons with respect to signatures of a condensate in the luminescence. The comparison of the experimental data with theoretical results with respect to the spatially resolved as well as the integrated luminescence intensity shows the necessity of taking into account a Bose-Einstein condensed excitonic phase in order to understand the behaviour of the trapped excitons.Comment: 41 pages, 23 figure