Quantitative absorption spectra of quantum wires measured by analysis of attenuated internal emissions

An absorption-spectroscopy method that utilizes internal emissions as the source of the probe light was used to measure the absorption spectra of quasi-one-dimensional (q-1D) excitons in T-shaped quantum wires embedded in an optical waveguide. The modal absorption area of the 1D ground-state excitons was estimated to be 0.39 eV cm(-1) and was almost independent of temperature in the range 4-150 K. Quantitative evaluation using the absorption spectra revealed that the absorption cross-section per unit length at resonance peak and the spectrally integrated absorption cross-section area per unit length of the 1D ground-state excitons were 1.0 nm and 2.5 x 10(-3) eV nm, respectively. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3693401]