Energy relaxation and transport of indirect excitons in AlAs/GaAs coupled quantum wells in magnetic field

The evolution of indirect exciton luminescence in AlAs/GaAs coupled quantum wells after excitation by pulsed laser radiation has been studied in strong magnetic fields (B less than or equal to 12 T) at low temperatures (T greater than or equal to 1.3 K), both in the normal regime and under conditions of anomalously fast exciton transport, which is an indication of the onset of exciton superfluidity. The energy relaxation rate of indirect excitons measured in the range of relaxation times between several and several hundreds of nanoseconds is found to be controlled by the properties of the exciton transport, specifically, this parameter increases with the coefficient of excitonic diffusion. This behavior is qualitatively explained in terms of migration of excitons between local minima of the random potential in the plane of the quantum well. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(98)02509-8].