Role of localized excitons in the stimulated emission in ultra-thin CdSe/ZnSe/ZnSSe single quantum-well structures

Photo-pumped lasing properties have been investigated in a CdSe/ZnSe/ZnSSE single quantum wells (SQWs) with the well-layer thickness (L-W) of 1, 2 and 3 monolayer (ML). At 20 K, the laser threshold for the SQW with L-W = 1 ML was the lowest in spite of the smallest active layer thickness. The carrier (exciton) sheet density at the threshold (II)th was estimated to be as low as 7 x 10(10) cm(-2), which is well below Mott's screening density. Time-resolved photoluminescence has revealed that the localized biexciton band, whose peak energy agrees with the lasing peak, appeared on the low-energy side of the main PL peak at this level of carrier concentrations. Theoretical calculation has also shown that the localized biexciton recombination has to be taken into account for the lasing process. On the contrary, the n(th) values Of the SQWs with 2 and 3 ML are 1 order of magnitude larger than that of the SQW with 1 ML, This may be due to the smaller oscillator strength of both localized excitons and localized biexcitons because of the larger inhomogeneous broadening, resulting in an increased carrier density for achieving optical gain sufficient to overcome the reflection losses. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.