Exciton ionization induced by an electric field in a strongly coupled GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs superlattice

We study exciton ionization induced by an axial electric field in a strongly coupled GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7 As superlattice at low temperatures. The field-induced ionization times of the heavy-hole 1s exciton in the miniband field regime are determined from transient four-wave-mixing experiments and theoretical model calculations. They are found to decrease with increasing field, and lie in the picosecond and subpicosecond ranges for fields on the order of a few kV/cm. They are considerably longer than those calculated for a 1s exciton in bulk GaAs. We explain this difference as a result of the nonparabolicities in the superlattice miniband dispersion. In addition to studying the field-induced ionization of the 1s resonance, we also investigate the field dependence of excitonic wave packets composed of both bound and continuum states of the exciton. It is found that the continuum components of the wave packet are more sensitive to low electric fields than the 1s component. © 1996 The American Physical Society.