EXCITONIC STATES OF WEAKLY CONFINING QUANTUM WIRES

We consider theoretically the excitonic levels of weakly one-dimension al quantum wires in the regime where the center of mass of the exciton is confined by the wire potentials for the electron and hole. A gener al frame based on the effective-mass approximation is presented and th e case of harmonic profiles for the electron and hole confining potent ials is considered in detail. The breaking of translation symmetry by the wire potentials introduces a series of transitions between the 1S and 2S excitons of the underlying isolated well, which lead to an intr insic high-energy tail for the wire absorption. We evaluate also the e xciton scattering by longitudinal acoustical phonons and by alloy diso rder in Ga1-xInxAs-based systems. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physi cs. [S0021-8979(98)01414-5].