Photoluminescence due to exciton–exciton scattering in a GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum well

We have investigated photoluminescence (PL) properties of a GaAs (20 nm)/AlAs (20 nm) multiple quantum well at 10 K under intense excitation conditions. It has been found that a PL band due to exciton–exciton scattering, the so-called P emission, is observed in addition to the biexciton PL under an excitation energy higher than the fundamental heavy-hole exciton by the energy of the longitudinal optical phonon. On the other hand, the P band could never be observed at an excitation energy much higher than the exciton energy, where a band-filling phenomenon appears in the PL spectrum. Furthermore, we confirmed the existence of optical gain leading to stimulated emission in the energy region of the P band using a variable-stripe-length method.