Resonant Rayleigh scattering by confined two-dimensional excitonic states

A systematic study of resonant Rayleigh scattering in semiconductor single quantum wells has been carried out. The dependence of the scattering efficiency on the well width and the temperature has been investigated. The behaviour observed in the resonant Rayleigh spectra can be explained in terms of the confinement of the excitonic states in the plane of the well due to fluctuations in the well width. A microscopic theoretical model for the elastic scattering of light by weakly confined two-dimensional excitonic states has been developed. The Rayleigh scattering efficiency has been calculated to the lowest-order of perturbation theory and the results found to be in good agreement with the e…