Semiconductor excitons in photonic crystals

Optical properties of a semiconductor quantum well in the vicinity of a two-dimensional photonic crystal are investigated. Due to the periodic spatial modulation of the dielectric environment the effective Coulomb interaction potential exhibits the periodicity of the photonic crystal. As a consequence, the excitonic binding energy varies periodically by up to 50% depending on the spatial position of the exciton relative to the structured dielectric. The self image charge effects result in a position dependent shift of the single-particle bandgap such that the spectral position of the absorption spectrum also develops the periodicity of the photonic surrounding. (C) 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.