Analog of the Auger effect in radiative decay of a trion in a quantum well

Abstract

We have analyzed the energetics of decay of the X^- trion (exciton + electron) on the assumption that the exciton and trion are independent excitations of a single two-dimensional semiconducting quantum well. For the first time, it has been shown that in filling a well with electrons from a selective donor-doped matrix, the binding energy of the trion (of the electron with the exciton) increases linearly with a shift of the Fermi level into the depth of the c band. This agrees with the well-known experimental data on the low-temperature radiative decay (photoluminescence) of trions in the heterostructures ZnSe/Zn_0.89Mg_0.11S_0.18Se_0.82 and CdTe/Cd_0.7Mg_0.3Te.