Abstract
Recent experiments show signatures of exciton Bose-Einstein condensation in semiconductors.1,2 Thus a device that creates a coherent population of excitons while being pumped by a thermal source may be possible. Such an exciton matter laser3 could consist of a quantum well, possibly embedded in an optical microcavity. In it hot excitons slightly below the bandgap are created by a thermal distribution of free electrons and holes (generated by electrical injection or optical pumping). The excitons interact with (LA) phonons. At low densities excitons are bosonic, and their scattering is affected by statistical enhancement into states with large occupation. Under certain conditions the excitons can condense into a single state, with statistics similar to a coherent state.4 Light emitted by radiative recombination has the coherence properties of the condensate and is similar to laser light. However, the electronic population in the device does not need to be inverted.5
© 1998 Optical Society of America
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