LASING FROM EXCITONS IN QUANTUM WIRES

Stimulated optical emission from the lowest exciton state in atomicall y smooth semiconductor quantum wires is observed for the first time. T he wires are formed by the inverted perpendicular intersection of two 7 nm GaAs quantum wells. The optical emission wavelength is nearly ind ependent of pump levels. This absence of band-gap renormalization in t he laser emission indicates a marked increase in the stability of the exciton in one dimension.