Confined Excitons in GaN-AlGaN Quantum Wells

Abstract

We calculate the original properties of excitons in GaN–AlGaN quantum wells by a variational approach in the envelope function formalism. The separation of electrons and holes by huge internal electric fields induces an enhanced dependence of exciton binding energy and oscillator strength on the well width. We demonstrate the necessity to perform excitonic calculations for obtaining, in particular, reliable values of oscillator strengths (thus radiative lifetimes), which are extremely sensitive to the well width.