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The dynamics of exciton recombination in an ensemble of indirect band-gap (In,Al)As/AlAs quantum dots with type-I band alignment is studied. The lifetime of confined excitons which are indirect in momentum-space is mainly influenced by the sharpness of the heterointerface between the (In,Al)As quantum dot and the AlAs barrier matrix. Time-resolved photoluminescence experiments and theoretical model calculations reveal a strong dependence of the exciton lifetime on the thickness of the interface diffusion layer. The lifetime of excitons with a particular optical transition energy varies because this energy is obtained for quantum dots differing in size, shape and composition. The different exciton lifetimes, which result in photoluminescence with non-exponential decay obeying a power-law function, can be described by a phenomenological distribution function G(τ ), which allows one to explain the photoluminescence decay with one fitting parameter only.

The luminescence properties of silicon nanocrystals fabricated by Si ion implantation into a SiO2 matrix and subsequent thermal annealing have been studied. To identify the mechanism of photoluminescence of Si nanocrystals, the dependencies of the steady-state photoluminescence on temperature and excitation power density, and the time-resolved photoluminescence have been investigated. The experimental results point to the mechanism of recombination via the levels of centers which are presumably localized at the silicon nanocrystal–silicon dioxide boundary.

We present a systematic study of the exciton/electron-hole plasma photoluminescence dynamics in bulk GaAs for various lattice temperatures and excitation densities. The competition between the exciton and electron-hole pair recombination dominates the onset of the luminescence. We show that the metal-to-insulator transition, induced by temperature and/or excitation density, can be directly monitored by the carrier dynamics and the time-resolved spectral characteristics of the light emission. The dependence on carrier density of the photoluminescence rise time is strongly modified around a lattice temperature of 49 K, corresponding to the exciton binding energy (4.2 meV). In a similar way, the rise-time dependence on lattice temperature undergoes a relatively abrupt change at an excitation density of 120-180x10 15 cm -3 , which is about five times greater than the calculated Mott density in GaAs taking into account many body corrections.