Exciton binding energy in a GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum well with uniform electric field

The effects of a uniform electric field on the binding energies of excitons and the subband energies in a GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum well are studied by a perturbative variational approach. Our calculation is based on an effective-width infinite-well model. The effective-mass mismatch is also taken into account. Our results show that the electric field causes a large shift of the subband energy and exciton peak position. The calculated results are compared with the data observed from an optical-absorption experiment. Satisfactory agreement is obtained.