Detecting an exciton crystal by statistical means

Abstract

We investigate an ensemble of excitons in a coupled quantum well excited via an applied laser field. Using an effective disordered quantum Ising model, we perform a numerical simulation of the experimental procedure and calculate the probability distribution function $P(M)$ to create $M$ excitons as well as their correlation function. It shows clear evidence of the existence of two phases corresponding to a liquid and a crystal phase. We demonstrate that not only the correlation function but also the distribution $P(M)$ is very well suited to monitor this transition.