Time‐Resolved Luminescence of Exciton‐Polaritons in Solid Xenon

Abstract

Abstract The decay of excitons in solid Xe is investigated with time and spectrally resolved luminescence as a function of temperature and photon energy of excitation. The luminescence of free excitons exceeds the self‐trapped exciton luminescence by a factor of 50 (peak‐to‐peak). The FE‐decay curves yield a non‐exponential behaviour. They can be reproduced with Monte‐Carlo simulations of the exciton‐polariton transport to the sample/vacuum interface, taking into account phonon scattering and trapping. A new upper limit for the intrinsic self‐trapping rate in the lower 10 7 s −1 range and a surprisingly large experimental value for the scattering length ( ≈ 100 nm at T = 5 K) are deduced. It is indispensable to discuss the decay of excitons in solid Xe in terms of the exciton‐polariton model.