Spectral speckle analysis of resonant secondary emission from solids

A linear optical method to measure coherence and dephasing of excitations in solids is presented. The spectrally resolved degree of coherence of resonantly scattered light is deduced from the intensity fluctuations over its emission directions (speckles). The spectral intensity correlation gives a direct measure of the dephasing rate within the inhomogeneously broadened ensemble. For localized excitons in semiconductor quantum wells, the combination of static disorder, phonon scattering, and radiative decay leads to a spectral dependence of the emission coherence and the dephasing rate, which is well described by model calculations.