Strong excitonic mixing effect in asymmetric double quantum wells: On the optimization of electroabsorption modulators

We investigate the mixing of excitons originating in different subband pairs in asymmetric double quantum wells (ADQWs) in a range of electric field where the two lowest exciton states anticross. This excitonic mixing is mainly attributed to the Coulomb interactions between subbands and the valence-subband nonparabolicity. Results show that excluding the excitonic mixing effect results in significant error in both the energies and the oscillator strengths of the excitons in an ADQW with thick barrier (3 nm). Even in an ADQW with a fairly thin barrier (1.2 nm), the error in the oscillator strengths can be substantial, although the errors in the computed energies may be tolerable. We find that including the mixing of excitons is indispensable in optimizing the structures of the asymmetric double quantum well electroabsorption modulators. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.